Friday, September 4, 2026

Two Terms I'll Never Use

There are two terms that have become common in modern usage that I don't like and I think I will never use. I'm not sure if they're only used online, or if they're frequently used by younger people. I only see them written.

I didn't understand what either one meant when I started seeing them, and I find both of their apparent meanings counter-intuitive to their actual meanings. 

One is own goal and the other is based.

I think I saw own goal first. To me it sounds like a positive thing, as when someone makes one of their goals, their own goal. But that's the opposite of what it means: it comes from a time when a player (probably in soccer) scores for the other team against his or her own goalie.

It's (over)used as a metaphor for times when a person or an organization does something that ends up damaging their own cause.

An example: "This administration's damage to our country is strictly an own goal." –Joyce Vance

Based, in my experience, is a more recent term. At first I thought it was a typo of "biased," or maybe there was a word missing. I have finally determined from context that it essentially expresses agreement — especially with something that's controversial. Essentially, a short way of saying "fuck your feelings."

Urban Dictionary says it's "used when you agree with something; or when you want to recognize someone for being themselves, i.e. courageous and unique or not caring what others think." 

Its etymology is pretty twisted, and it sounds like I wasn't the only one who didn't know what it meant

I'm sure I dislike it partly because Elon Musk is fond of using it when he reposts his white supremacist and anti-Semitic trash on X. Mostly, it makes him sound like a 50-something teenage-wannabe. 

I hope Musk's old guy cooties have soured young people on using it. Maybe it will (or has already) gone out of style.

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