An interlocutor accused the position of being deeply antisemitic and morally bankrupt and labeled some accusations as gaslighting. Calling antisemitism a "myth" at Harvard does not deny real, painful incidents but names a tendency to build simplistic, large narratives from discrete events. Many real cases of antisemitism and other biases exist, yet allowing hateful speech is not equivalent to institutional discrimination. The term "gaslighting" originates in a 1938 play and early 1940s films about deliberate reality-denial. The word surged in the 2010s and peaked in 2022; ubiquitous use now risks weakening serious intellectual critique.
"Gaslighting" is a term that comes from the world of fiction. It's a fantasy-first a play in 1938 by British playwright Patrick Hamilton, then two movies in the early 1940s. The Victorian-era plot of Gaslight involves an evil husband trying to steal from his wife (Ingrid Bergman) by driving her crazy-dimming the gas lights and denying that anything is wrong.
Instead, I want to focus on the common abuse of the term "gaslighting" to denounce our enemies. The truth is, no one is gaslighting anybody. No one is trying to drive you crazy with lies. No one cares enough about you to do that. And the more we see "gaslighting" everywhere around us, the weaker our intellectual arguments will become.
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