Toxic Term: Better

Better.

A low level term that normally flies under our detection. It dresses itself in the seductive positive robes of desired terminology. Who doesn't want better?

And yet in that ridiculously small term that we have a complex comparison. It compares a selective set of traits to another selective set of traits. Unwritten. Codefied. Secret.

With both aspects of that equation, much of the detail is obscured when we use the term "better". Sometimes it is an ethnocentric and egocentric benign omission. At other times, the omissions may be more ulterior and obscured, for fear to catch scrutiny.

And yet clearly a comparison, how often have we foolishly read it as an endpoint? How often have we erroneously assumed it to be a goal unto itself?

Better is a hollow piece of trickery. Reject it in exchange for framing.