Virtue SignalingDoes it make sense?

submitted by Hannibalboy93 from reddit.com

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[–][deleted] 13 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 0 fun14 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

And it shouldn’t seem strange - the singular “they”(and it’s possessive “their”) has been used since the 1300s (at least) to denote a noun of unknown or unspecified gender or without a binary gender at all. So I think it is not weird at all, but appropriate and grammatically correct.

Cool, now explain it in every other language that isn't English. Or are we all supposed to base our lives on one of the most nonsensical languages in existence?

[–]PenseePansyBio-Sex or Bust 12 insightful - 2 fun12 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

And it shouldn’t seem strange - the singular “they”(and it’s possessive “their”) has been used since the 1300s (at least) to denote a noun of unknown or unspecified gender or without a binary gender at all. So I think it is not weird at all, but appropriate and grammatically correct.

But this is not done when referring to somebody WHOSE SEX WE KNOW. It's for speaking of an individual in the abstract. And let's not forget that "they" often has negative connotations in English (frequently used for remote collective entities who cause us annoyance or worse-- "they're cancelling my favorite show!!!"). Which, on second thought, perhaps makes it fitting for the pronoun-people/gender-gestapo after all...

[–]strawberrycake 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah, the Anglocentrism of it is really gross. Also, my whole thing is that yes, we do sometimes use “they” as a singlar, but when we need to specify a singular person using “he” or “she” is far more clear. If you talk about a non-binary person among literally any group of people it is super confusing and there’s usually a breakdown in communication.

[–]Mermer 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Also that's literally the point of it. To not specify gender. It doesn't make sense when we know who we are talking about.

[–]automoderatorHuman-Exclusionary Radical Overlord[M] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

RIP Snappy, I AM THE NEW GOD!

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