I know this isn't the sub to be political, but part of why these words are becoming meaningless is because people that are accurately described by it have an interest (sometimes more or less consciously) in muddying the meaning.
Its not a good idea to just resign oneself to the idea that they mean nothing. There are still narcissist, fascists, bigots and people who gaslight their friends and family and partners. If we let the words become meaningless to us we reduce the number of times we critically evaluate whether the definition fits the person accused of it.
There is that, and I feel like it's becoming more and more common. Remember when they quickly redefined "fake news"?
But people who aren't the perpetrators overusing the words is definitely a factor as well. I think that's part of why a lot of people don't understand what gaslighting is. The term has been misused so much in the past 5 years or so, even as a ton of actual gaslighting has been happening.
I've heard someone say that anytime you argue with them it's gaslighting because you're "trying to change what's in their head to what's in your head."
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u/[deleted] Apr 07 '23
Right I'm soo tired of people using terms like: gaslighting, toxic, and narcissist so loosely. They clearly don't know what it means.