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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   29648 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 26, 2024

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You don't have to call me a "they," I'm not non-binary.

The question wasn't "Why aren't you supportive of Ukraine?" It's "Why are you pro-Russia?" Those aren't the same thing.

You don't have to call me a "they," I'm not non-binary.

Well, you've narrowed it down to a 50/50 choice, but IMO "they" is the appropriate pronoun to use when facing that unknown.

What happened to he/she?

We dropped it in favor of the more concise "they" because the singular/plural distinction wasn't important enough to maintain for many people compared to the convenience of having a single word. It also nicely dodges the complaints some people had about prioritizing one gender over another in language due to the ordering of "he or she", which was a rather obnoxious part of the gender war a few decades back.

Try using that in a conversation with a friend, and pay attention to how he/she responds. I have a feeling they would find it unnatural.

In speech it would take the or as in "Whatever he or she would like to do." I've used this phrase as long as I've been speaking in such contexts, but admittedly I'm probably older than you, my ways are likely not your ways, etc. I've never had any pushback. They I'd of course use if there were more than one person, and that's a legitimate strategy.

"If one member of your group wants a single room, he or she should reserve ahead."

" If people want individual rooms, they should reserve ahead."

I just made that scenario up; I am not in hospitality.

Well, it's the Motte, so a simple Bayesian prediction would have a much greater than 50/50 chance of being right...

I've been around for years now. I guess someone who doesn't read my posts might be unsure. But someone who's been hate-reading me enough to complain about me regularly probably is not.

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