I really don't appreciate you misusing the term since I've had to deal with actual gaslighting in real life. You cannot be gaslit by some random stranger making a single post on the internet. This isn't an obsessed stalker that we're talking about here, it's just a one-off comment that will probably be glanced over and then never thought of again, if it's ever read at all.

Gaslighting is something that happens over a long period of time, with someone you know well and that you trust. The person you are defending is not going to be questioning their sanity or who they are as a person because of one HN post.

Asking someone to reconsider why they were treated a certain way by other people is not gaslighting. Calling someone a liar is not gaslighting. Countering someone's anecdotal evidence with your own is not gaslighting. Please stop trivializing the term, because it's a serious form of emotional and mental abuse, and you're downplaying its severity by tossing the word around like this.

I'm not trying to gaslight or explain anything away. I'm saying there is a multitude of factors as to why you'd be at work and someone wouldn't remember your name.

I'm not blaming anyone, just trying to share another perspective. I personally think it's dangerous to think in black and white. I try to remain a healthy skeptic, and I'm welcome to new perspectives.