By Morf Morford, Tacoma Daily Index

You might think the words of the year would have something to do with technology, or work or the economy, or even the prevailing mood or attitude of the year in question.

But perhaps, more than previous years, the words that resonate the deepest are those that capture the essence of who we are; what we have become in these most strange past few years.

In Gaslighting we trust

Dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster announced “gaslighting” as its word of the year, inspired by the current atmosphere of misinformation and manipulation. Half-truths, evasiveness and distortion of facts are only a few of the strategies at work in virtually every corner of our culture.

From lazy and vague social media memes to slogans and bumper stickers, partially formed opinions seem to be everywhere – but actual philosophical or moral positions – based on facts instead of biased agendas – are rare indeed in our public (and even many private) discussions.

You can see an exploration of “gaslighting” here.

Embrace your inner goblin

Oxford University Press (OUP), publishers behind the Oxford English Dictionary, chose the term “Goblin mode”, a term which refers to behavior which is “unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations”.

Sound like anyone you know?

After all, who needs an antiseptic, vague term like “metaverse” when we can have a word that captures the essence of revolt against the social media ideal of super-fit, ultra-productive self-improvement obsessions that seems far more true, not only to the moment, but to our response to it.

I don’t know about anyone else, but “Goblin mode”, seem like an apt description of most bedrooms, most parks and too many public spaces and sidewalks in almost any town or neighborhood.

“Bad vibes only” meets “Live, love, laugh”

In more ways than I could count, 2022 has been a travail.

The novelist Tom Wolfe (The Right Stuff, among many others) described the 1970s as a “kidney stone of a decade”.

2022 was a lot like that for most of us – painful, unproductive, and then excruciatingly painful and unproductive again.

The packaged discount store, machine calligraphy cheerfulness of the “Live, love, laugh” posters was no panacea against the many assaults on our moods, humanity and relationships thanks to gyrations of the economy, the political theater, world events, and, for all too many of us, health (including mental health) issues like most of us have never encountered before.

Being a “goblin” just might be the best survival strategy.

Who needs to write a novel when eating and doing laundry on a regular basis is far more rewarding. And essential.

Contenders, but not good enough

Several words emerged in 2022 that flared like a bad dream and settled into the rush of media noise and became either irrelevant or somehow lost their potency. Here’s a few of them;

Quiet quitting

This is an odd term when you think about it.

When I have seen or hear this term, it refers to working to, but not beyond, our assigned duties or schedule.

Isn’t that what we are supposed to do? And what we are paid to do?

Only in the convoluted world of 2022 would working to the full extent of our contract be considered “quitting”.

Qwitter

We began 2022 with a social media/news feed website by the name of Twitter.

In just a few short weeks of ownership by Elon Musk, Twitter became a quivering shadow of its former self.

With algorithms run amok, accounts being suspended and restored arbitrarily, the only option for many has been to abandon a platform that has become a reflection of its erratic new owner.

Cybersecurity

This word isn’t so much a tech buzzword as it is the ultimate oxymoron of our time. Cyber-IN-security might be a more appropriate term.

If there is anything we all share, it is a frightening level of cyber-insecurity.

Our bank accounts, our financial records, our bills, credit history and health records are all vulnerable to a degree none of us could have ever imagined.

Pen and paper never looked so good as in the 2020s.

Credit card and Social Security numbers are for sale on the “dark web”.

Work histories and identities can be manipulated, created or erased.

COVID beard

I’ll be glad to never hear this term again.

Beards have been a sign and symbol of male maturity/rebellion/sophistication for centuries.

But it took a pandemic to turn what had been a sign of male coming of age to an expression of inertia and slovenliness.

If you wanted a statement of shaggy male laziness and apathy, this was it.

Beards, like every aspect of our appearance, should be an expression of our choice.

COVID beards aren’t deliberate or cultivated. They all too often adorn the face of one who believes and cares as he appears.

“Woke”

We can always count on politicians to come up with inflammatory gibberish or short-hand slogans for complex issues to rouse emotions (and voting).

Rage (the more incoherent the better), they seem to have learned, is more effective than policy development or competent administration.

Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis has described his state as the place where “woke goes to die.”

But what in the heck is “woke”?

It’s not some kind of identifiable weed or bacteria or even action. How would any of us know it when we see it? And how would we know if it is “alive” or “dead”?

When asked by a judge what the word meant, the governor’s general counsel, Ryan Newman, said, in general, it means “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.” He added that DeSantis didn’t believe there were systemic injustices in the country.

As is all too common, this is a familiar case of “I said it so it must be true” which means that decades of red-lining, discriminatory policing and blatant “dog-whistles” about race and anti-Semitism are suddenly erased at the utterance of a few inanities by an elected official.

Sounds like yet another case of gaslighting.