Toxic Meaninglessness

You know when a popular word has reached its saturation point of usefulness, when people start using it instead of better, more precise words. They actually use it to avoid doing the more rigorous work required of articulating something accurately. It becomes a kind of lazy shorthand for things that we don't want or are unequipped to explain properly. That's the case these days with the word toxic. People say so and so has a toxic personality instead of clearly identifying what that person says or does that interferes with having a healthy, productive or meaningful interaction with them.

We say a situation has become toxic because we don't want to do the work to analyze how or why something has become complicated, uncomfortable, tense, or negative. It's a word that allows no solution or remedy and very often it's used to divert attention away from our own responsibility and our, perhaps, unwillingness to explore possible remedies and solutions. We call people or situations toxic even though sometimes it's actually our own reactions to those things that need to be worked on.