He has nothing new to offer in another book about Diana Ross. According to him, he worked with her during the years 1988-2000 in the U.K.! Now all of you Diana Ross experts know that there was not shit going on in Diana Ross' career during those years which is why she tried to trick the public into seeing her fake Supremes Reunion tour in 2000! There will be no book! Since the entire Soulful Detroit membership has been signed up here I will address my concerns here ...
There has recently been a rash of gas lighting behavior on different threads here on Soulful Detroit. This is only my own personal observation given my professional training, however, given its very destructive effect on internet fora/blogs it is worth pointing out.
What is gas lighting?Gaslighting is a term derived from a play in the 1940s, Gas Light, where the antagonist attempted to distort his victim's perception of reality in order for her to question her own sense of reality. Gaslighting is defined as "a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or members of a group, hoping to make targets question their own memory, perception, and sanity." See
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting.
What does this look like?Let me give you a completely unrelated example:
Contributor X: I really love Chevrolet cars. But I hate that they break down, the engines are unreliable, the doors fall off and the transmissions fail after a few months. But I love Chevrolet cars.
Contributor Y: I don't think this is accurate and I have never had this problem with Chevrolet cars.
Contributor X: See, you are part of the problem!!! You are just trying to hide things so Chevrolet cars won't get any better!!! You are causing Chevrolet cars to be unreliable...
This example exchange then usually devolves into Contributor X personally attacking Contributor Y.Why is this so disruptive of an internet forum?
This type of internet contributor actually isn't interested in any logical, ordered discussion. They are not really interested in "winning a point" in an argument. What they are actually trying to do is disrupt known forum/blog personalities so as to throw the whole flow of discussion off-balance. They seek to disrupt.
Who gaslighights?While it may seem odd, known forum/blogging personalities do not usually engage in gas lighting, at least with their own IDs. What you will see is a long dormant ID or a new ID that comes in, quickly allies with one side or another in an on-going feud, and then quickly begins gas lighting to turn forum/blog members against each other.
Why is it so destructive?Gaslighting is destructive because most internet fora/blogs have a small core constituency who contribute. They often withstand problem contributors or mildly disruptive behaviors, but gas lighting turns the forum into an uncontrolled and unpredictable place and many people simply abandon such fora or blogs rather than withstand such disruption. Because gaslighters are often sucessful at turning reality on its head, it leads to forum/blog members to question their own sense of reality, and therefore, to lose interest in the topic that drew them to contribute in the first place. And this is precisely the point of gas lighting behavior.
Know that this behavior exists, it is incredibly disruptive and destructive, and know when you are being drawn into such a conversation that the best way to handle it is to report it to the moderator