Society is devolving before our very eyes, and we’ve even reached the point of arguing about grammar as if it is a life-or-death topic. Elon Mush, just days ago, said as much when he lashed out at the new idea that it is not only acceptable but polite, to force people to call you by a pronoun of your own choosing. Even AOC got in trouble with the woke mob.
Now, a British man has risen to fight alongside Musk, but this time by giving his TikTok viewers a lesson in grammar. In this two-minute video, the Brit explains and dissects the absurdity that announcing your pronouns that the start of a conversation with someone whom you just met.
Based man explains the real reason why a person might want to announce what his or her pronouns are.
His explanation is perfect. pic.twitter.com/CJ8jmHSZxU
— Catch Up (@CatchUpNetwork) January 6, 2023
Like any good argument, he looks at both sides. He starts by addressing the other side and explaining their argument:
“I know, when you say ‘hello my name is Kim, my pronouns are she/her.’ What you will say is that you are just telling me how you want to be addressed, so that I can speak to you respectfully. But, we’re both quite clear, you and I, and we know that that’s really not what’s happening.”
Now, the grammar lesson is incoming, and as long as we’re still in agreement about the rules of speech this should be something understood by both sides. He explains, correctly, that when two people have a conversation, there is rarely a need for the use of he/she with respect to each other. So, the Brit asks, why would the pronouns need to be covered at the start of the conversation when they will have no bearing? Both people will be saying “you” and “yours” in pretty much every interaction with the other person. Well, he offers a pretty good reason why and it’s probably something that most on the right feel when they encounter this new radical form of introduction:
“So when you — quite uninvited — declare your pronouns to me, in spite of what you might say, you are not telling me how to address you. You are not telling me how you like to be spoken to. What you’re telling me is how I must think about you and how I must speak to everyone else in the world when I refer to you. You might think it’s okay to control me in that way. You may think you have a good justification for doing so. But at the very least let’s be honest about what you’re doing. Because that’s how I like to be spoken to.”
That’s an interesting point that I certainly hadn’t thought of, but it seems to ring true. No, their use of pronouns in their introduction doesn’t change the interaction after the fact, until way later when you refer to that person. The control is far reaching, in ways that other conversation norms certainly are not, and it does attempt to resort some control over the other person.
Of course, if the other people subverts that control, they will immediately be labeled a bigot, harassed at their place of work, or face obscenity-laden insults on social media. Hmmm, this guy’s made good point.
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