
Ask HN: What exactly *is* the definition of “toxic”? - sylvilagus
I see the word &quot;toxic&quot; being used more and more in a social context, but does it have a real objective meaning, or does it simply describe things someone subjectively doesn&#x27;t like?
======
bachbach
I think the reason why toxic is getting used more frequently is because it is
saying "a thing I/We don't like has a viral quality".

Flamewars notoriously have that feature, like a black hole dragging in more
and more participants until everybody is Hitlin-Staler.

I would <personal opinion incoming> that most modern news websites and
television news channels are toxic because they make the viewers more neurotic
and in a way that spreads because misery loves company.

I suspect that a ban on news would magically improve social networking. People
would still talk of news but the toxicity would go way down. No exceptions,
total ban.

If a nuke goes off or the zombies are coming - you'll find out somehow.

Sometimes I miss out on daylight savings time changes or something basic
everybody appears to know and I'm fine with that. Some people will think this
impedes some democratic process - I can't imagine what happened before 24 hr
news was invented or the television, I'm sure it was a complete nightmare.

------
finnthehuman
"Toxic" is an _assessment_ of behavior, that covers a lot of different
possible actions. The set of actions that are obviously toxic or obviously not
won't be the topic of much discussion, but as we all already know interesting
conversations happen at the boundaries where assessments conflict.

So, when "toxic" is used to the exclusion of actually describing what happened
you have to ask yourself: why isn't the speaker communicating more clearly?
Maybe they're bad at stating their point, maybe it's a loose informal
conversation, or maybe they benefit from the information asymmetry.

------
megaman22
It's become a near-meaningless particle to indicate that the speaker dislikes
something and wants to cast it as some great evil at the root of society's
problems.

Toxic always brings forth memories of either Ninja Turtles or Swamp Thing, for
me though.

------
bjourne
I think it is related to the (in)famous talk the Subversion developers held in
2008 about "Poisonous people"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F-3E8pyjFo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F-3E8pyjFo)
Both terms are kind of meaningless because the allegory to toxic substances
doesn't work at all. Water, salt, alcohol, DDT and lead are all toxic but in
different ways. Imo, more specific terms are better like "Help Vampire," which
according to some, would be a poisonous person.

------
krapp
Something which is toxic is poisonous. In a social context, it refers to
behaviors, words, actions or situations which have a similar effect on the
social fabric or body politic that literal toxins do on living tissue, which
encourage the spread of collectively negative or harmful behaviors.

It means exactly what it says on the tin.

~~~
danieltillett
The problem is not that there are not toxic ideas or words, but the term has
been so (ab)used that it has lost all meaning.

It is a bit like the word fascist which used to have a specific meaning, but
which has been so widely applied that it is now pretty much meaningless except
as a term of abuse.

------
staunch
A reasonable definition of the current usage might be that toxic means
extreme.

"This gaming community is toxic" could be read as "This gaming community is
extremely obscene"

"This forum is toxic" could be read as "This forum is extremely negative"

Seems to match the usage I see anyway.

------
danieltillett
While I suspect this thread is not going to last long, toxic is just another
word that has lost all meaning by being applied by people to any topic they
don't want to see discussed.

To answer your question toxic no longer has a real meaning outside of science
and medicine.

------
shoo
i'm not able to answer your question, but the first thing i think of when i
read "toxic" on hackernews* is this:

Iseendai's "Sick systems: How to keep someone with you forever" post:
[https://issendai.livejournal.com/572510.html](https://issendai.livejournal.com/572510.html)

which is about abusive and exploitative relationships / organisations /
businesses / cults . probably a bit of a tangent, but perhaps a more useful
one to read and think about.

* probably as a result of mentally associating hackernews ~ software jobs ~ bad software jobs ~ abusive/exploitative workplaces ~ toxic relationships ~ "toxic"

------
thisone
in a social context I see the word toxic being used to describe behaviours
that are detrimental to other members of the community, to the extent that the
members of the community that do not engage in those behaviours will
disassociate themselves.

