To the Editor:

John Wilson is right (“ No One is Gaslighting You ,” Aug. 20, 2025) that the term “gaslight” can be abused and manipulated in ways that are tendentious, ad hominem and not empirically sound, as can many words and phrases.

However, that’s not an argument against its reality as a social phenomenon and its pernicious impacts. One of the common features of prejudice and discrimination is their denial. That doesn’t make all reported allegations of prejudice and discrimination accurate and true, but it is a frequent characteristic of expressions of prejudice and discrimination to deny their existence. Whether or not such forms of discrimination and prejudice are institutional or systemic may be legitimately contested. But, even if they do not meet the definitions of those term

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