"Oh, there's a lot of ways. It's, you know... nothing bad. No, it's just... like, for instance, I could... send her a picture of herself sleeping. [...] Oh, she'd never know I was there. [...] No, the whole point is to isolate her and make her feel like she's going insane. So, I would just do little things like replace her dog with a slightly different dog, or, you know, change the furniture in her house so she thinks she's shrinking. You know, basic stuff, most of it I learned in the military. Some of it on a subreddit. You know. Basically, just plant a seed, and then they just kinda hang themselves, so it's super nonviolent."
— Barry, Barry
"You are not going out of your mind, Mrs. Manningham. You are slowly, methodically, systematically being driven out of your mind."
—Rough, Angel Street
Shawn: "Gus, dude, you've got to stop moving my stuff."
Gus: "I haven't touched your stuff."
Shawn: "Liar liar pants on fire. These were arranged in order of Kelly Osbourne's weight loss and they're all out of order now. Thus, like James Caan with the penguin that always faces south, you've been undone by your lack of attention to detail."
Gus: "I haven't touched your copies of People. You're finally losing your mind. Or someone's Gaslighting you."
Shawn: "That might be a helpful statement if I knew what it meant."
Gus: "It's a movie. Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer. Her husband tries to make her think she's crazy so he can get her money. It's a classic. A young Angela Lansbury plays their maid and -"
Gus: "I haven't touched your stuff."
Shawn: "Liar liar pants on fire. These were arranged in order of Kelly Osbourne's weight loss and they're all out of order now. Thus, like James Caan with the penguin that always faces south, you've been undone by your lack of attention to detail."
Gus: "I haven't touched your copies of People. You're finally losing your mind. Or someone's Gaslighting you."
Shawn: "That might be a helpful statement if I knew what it meant."
Gus: "It's a movie. Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer. Her husband tries to make her think she's crazy so he can get her money. It's a classic. A young Angela Lansbury plays their maid and -"
“Back during the war, we found out one of the households was hardcore ABB. Not actual gang members, but the kind who would – and did – make attempts to smuggle gangers into the neighborhood, where they figured they'd be safe under E88's radar. Now, these were civilians, so we couldn't just beat the shit out of them. We might've officially been villains, but even back then we didn't hurt people like that. So instead, the evil genius here has an idea.” I let the information sink in for a moment while Imp preened, before continuing. “She camps out in their house for a week. Brings a pillow and a sleeping bag, sets up in a closet. Every day, she rearranges their furniture. Sometimes it's just little things, like an ottoman being across the room or a glass on the other side of the table. Other times, she spends the whole day to shove the couch into the dining room. By the end of the week, they're freaking out. Of course, when she starts to write satanic messages on their mirrors, that's when they decide it's the last straw. They left the territory and we moved refugees into the house the same day.”
"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
">Be me
>Be 16
>New school, introduced to class
>Meet guy who is an asshole, let's call him Shitgut
>Shitgut tries to start bullying me
>Be alpha and resist
>Don't make any friends, don't need them
>Notice Shitgut bullies other kids
>Decide to fuck him up
>Figure where his locker is
>Wait until school is over, follow him home from a safe distance, unseen
>Mark down where he lives, GTFO
>Find out he does hockey, figure out where his ice rink is, and what time he trains
>Spend six months practically stalking that fuck, making sure I don't get caught
>Map out where he is at any time, at all times
>Then proceed to phase two, buy a pineapple
>On a day I get off school earlier than he does, bike to his house and leave the pineapple on the door
>His parents ain't home for hours, seen by nobody
>He tells people about the pineapple tomorrow, nobody cares
>Two weeks later, sneak a pineapple at the ice rink, in the men's dressing room
>People think he's making it up
>Start buying a pineapple on a regular basis, always have it ready when opportunity strikes
>Hallway empty, pick his locker and leave a pineapple
>His motorbike is unwatched, leave a pineapple
>He doesn't mention the pineapples to anyone anymore
>Figure out where they keep his home's spare key
>Skip school, sneak into his home while his parents work
>Leave a pineapple on his bed
>Hear he's failing classes
>His parents put up a security camera, I figure the blind spot and dodge that shit
>Send him a fucking pineapple for christmas through the mail from a fake address
>He doesn't show up to school every day anymore
>Don't even think about why I do it anymore, it's just for shits and giggles now
>Bombard that fuck with random pineapples every few weeks for two fucking years
>Go to college like a boss
>Come back home for the holidays
>Hear someone from my old school had had a panic attack at the grocery store
>It's Shitgut.
>Someone had left a fucking pineapple on the beer shelf
>Be 16
>New school, introduced to class
>Meet guy who is an asshole, let's call him Shitgut
>Shitgut tries to start bullying me
>Be alpha and resist
>Don't make any friends, don't need them
>Notice Shitgut bullies other kids
>Decide to fuck him up
>Figure where his locker is
>Wait until school is over, follow him home from a safe distance, unseen
>Mark down where he lives, GTFO
>Find out he does hockey, figure out where his ice rink is, and what time he trains
>Spend six months practically stalking that fuck, making sure I don't get caught
>Map out where he is at any time, at all times
>Then proceed to phase two, buy a pineapple
>On a day I get off school earlier than he does, bike to his house and leave the pineapple on the door
>His parents ain't home for hours, seen by nobody
>He tells people about the pineapple tomorrow, nobody cares
>Two weeks later, sneak a pineapple at the ice rink, in the men's dressing room
>People think he's making it up
>Start buying a pineapple on a regular basis, always have it ready when opportunity strikes
>Hallway empty, pick his locker and leave a pineapple
>His motorbike is unwatched, leave a pineapple
>He doesn't mention the pineapples to anyone anymore
>Figure out where they keep his home's spare key
>Skip school, sneak into his home while his parents work
>Leave a pineapple on his bed
>Hear he's failing classes
>His parents put up a security camera, I figure the blind spot and dodge that shit
>Send him a fucking pineapple for christmas through the mail from a fake address
>He doesn't show up to school every day anymore
>Don't even think about why I do it anymore, it's just for shits and giggles now
>Bombard that fuck with random pineapples every few weeks for two fucking years
>Go to college like a boss
>Come back home for the holidays
>Hear someone from my old school had had a panic attack at the grocery store
>It's Shitgut.
>Someone had left a fucking pineapple on the beer shelf
"Funny, when someone lies to you enough, you just stop believing anything they say. 'Cause all this time, I thought that I was crazy, and I'm not. And you let me. And I just realised I have no idea who you really are."
—Robyn to Simon, The Gift (2015)
And you were too busy f—king that tattooed kangaroo and calling me paranoid! I spent months thinking I was crazy because of you! And you know what? I was right!
—Alex Vause to Piper Chapman, Orange Is the New Black
"I can tell you aren't yourself as much lately... Must be having some crazy terrible and skewed imagination! I assure you, this is not a place to provoke harm, but a place to feel at ease. Don't trust the illusions, they are only your mind deteriorating. Don't trust anything except for the path. Just stick to the path, and read the books :]"
— The Inbetween to Karl, Tales From the SMP
Toast: Sykkuno, do you know what "gaslighting" means?
Valkyrae: I actually don't know what that means, but I've been seeing it.
Lily: I explained it to you, remember Rae? I explained what gaslighting was, like, last week. Did you forget already?
Sykkuno: I mean I probably actually did, but...
(the others start Corpsing)
Sykkuno: Wait, did you explain it to me? That's how you know I forgot, if you did explain it to me.
Valkyrae: I still wanna know what it is!
Sykkuno: I genuinely don't remember you telling me, but if I forgot...
Lily: I told you guys, remember? No, I told you yesterday!
Sykkuno: Yesterday? I thought you said it was last week? ...well, I guess yesterday was Sunday...
Lily: Wait, when did I say last week? I said yesterday the first time!
Sykkuno: I guess technically that's last week, right?
Toast: ...[Lily's] doing an example of what gaslighting is.
Valkyrae: I don't get it!
Valkyrae: I actually don't know what that means, but I've been seeing it.
Lily: I explained it to you, remember Rae? I explained what gaslighting was, like, last week. Did you forget already?
Sykkuno: I mean I probably actually did, but...
(the others start Corpsing)
Sykkuno: Wait, did you explain it to me? That's how you know I forgot, if you did explain it to me.
Valkyrae: I still wanna know what it is!
Sykkuno: I genuinely don't remember you telling me, but if I forgot...
Lily: I told you guys, remember? No, I told you yesterday!
Sykkuno: Yesterday? I thought you said it was last week? ...well, I guess yesterday was Sunday...
Lily: Wait, when did I say last week? I said yesterday the first time!
Sykkuno: I guess technically that's last week, right?
Toast: ...[Lily's] doing an example of what gaslighting is.
Valkyrae: I don't get it!
"What is the cost of lies? It's not that we'll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all."
— Legasov, Chernobyl
Mook: "Hey! This rabbit must have flipped! Why is it running in circles?"
Lex Luthor: "Because it's trapped in a maze and can't figure a way to get out to eat its food! The creature is so baffled that its brain has been permanently affected! And that's what I'm doing to Superman. I'm using psychological warfare to drive him mad!"
Lex Luthor: "Because it's trapped in a maze and can't figure a way to get out to eat its food! The creature is so baffled that its brain has been permanently affected! And that's what I'm doing to Superman. I'm using psychological warfare to drive him mad!"
"I made a man cry once. I hid his keys. For a week. But I kept moving them. So he thought he was losing his mind."
— Scratch, The Ghost and Molly McGee
"DON'T GASLIGHT ME, JESUS!"
— Donut, Dungeon Crawler Carl book 6: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
Jackie Butler: "This is gaslighting, you guys are gaslighting me here!"
Jeremy Dooley: "there’s no such thing. "
Jeremy Dooley: "there’s no such thing. "
u/Kametai: Insurance adjuster here. I'm not a detective, but I do lots of fraud investigations. The ones that aren't fraudulent are sometimes really fricking weird. The winner for me hands down is the man who claimed he was terrorized by mole people. I know, I know. Mole people sounds like something I would make up for fake internet points. We had a laugh about the adjuster potentially trying to pad their claims count because this man filed SIXTY claims in about seven months. For context the average is like one a year for most policies. After talking with this gentleman, I no longer had doubts.
My in-person interview was about two hours. I had more than enough in the first five minutes and was trying to leave for most of it, but he kept blocking the door or directing me the wrong way to keep the mole people off my scent. It was kind of sweet in a twisted way; he genuinely thought the mole people would come after me if I didn't follow his rules.
He directed me to park ye olde company car about a mile away on a concrete parking flat he had made. We couldn't walk on the dirt road there; the mole people constantly changed where it went. The claims he filed were all in similar veins. The mole people moved his car every night with magnets and damaged the suspension and the noise kept our insured awake. They'd steal his hubcaps and put them back before they thought he would notice, but he noticed and they were covered in scratches from being pulled through the dirt. They would use long thin sticks from underground to siphon gas or wiper fluid or oil, but never more than a few drops. And for every one of these things he would file a claim which would inevitably be well below his deductible.
We decided that there was no fraud, but a call to adult protective services was merited.
u/Roguecop: The Eastern German Statsi would use a similar tactic, psychological warfare actually, to unnerve a political "troublemaker". They would go into a person's house and make very subtle changes. Like hiding one shoe, or changing the time on a clock or alarm 8 minutes, removing some groceries, putting in others, increasing the temperature of a refrigerator, etc.
My in-person interview was about two hours. I had more than enough in the first five minutes and was trying to leave for most of it, but he kept blocking the door or directing me the wrong way to keep the mole people off my scent. It was kind of sweet in a twisted way; he genuinely thought the mole people would come after me if I didn't follow his rules.
He directed me to park ye olde company car about a mile away on a concrete parking flat he had made. We couldn't walk on the dirt road there; the mole people constantly changed where it went. The claims he filed were all in similar veins. The mole people moved his car every night with magnets and damaged the suspension and the noise kept our insured awake. They'd steal his hubcaps and put them back before they thought he would notice, but he noticed and they were covered in scratches from being pulled through the dirt. They would use long thin sticks from underground to siphon gas or wiper fluid or oil, but never more than a few drops. And for every one of these things he would file a claim which would inevitably be well below his deductible.
We decided that there was no fraud, but a call to adult protective services was merited.
u/Roguecop: The Eastern German Statsi would use a similar tactic, psychological warfare actually, to unnerve a political "troublemaker". They would go into a person's house and make very subtle changes. Like hiding one shoe, or changing the time on a clock or alarm 8 minutes, removing some groceries, putting in others, increasing the temperature of a refrigerator, etc.
