1059 Gaslighting

A term that has come out of obscurity but works well to precisely define a debating fallacy is “gaslighting.” Gaslighting’s most common display is when somebody starts a sentence with “you’re crazy…” In that exact sense, gaslighting is an attempt to cast someone else as mentally impaired so that their desires & opinions mean nothing because their judgment is suspect and can be dismissed out of hand. However, gaslighting’s definition has expanded to include any assumption of false fact, a kind of straw-manning but it doesn’t require any prep: “you’re a conspirator,” “you’re being paranoid,” “you always scream at me.” Gaslighting is another name-calling tactic used by the Left to undermine & debase people rather than arguments: “you’re racist,” “you’re a misogynist” or “you’re transphobic.” Getting gaslighted effectively frames the debate against you, if you let it: once you go on the defensive, you’ve lost. Your response shouldn’t be denial or defense, it’s to counter-attack: “stop gaslighting!” Reverse -gaslighting works just as well.