• Rocket@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      if I started purposefully calling you ma’m or lil miss all the time (assuming you’re a dude) you wouldn’t like it.

      What’s not to like? The nerd trying to be a bully is funny.

      If I suspended the charter to make a law that everyone has to call you lil miss you don’t think you’d be mad?

      I would think you are mad (in the insane sense).

      The right however is going to war over this shit

      I’m sure there is no completely unified front, but many are pushing for this because they consider it to be a mental illness. If you look at it from that point of view, you can see why they do not see the problem with calling notwithstanding. It is already granted under the Charter for educators to notify parents when they see children displaying symptoms of illness. From their point of view, failing to do so is not complying with one’s rights.

      In other words, the real clash is the idea of it being a mental illness v.s. it being normal human expression. Words are merely caught in the crossfire.

    • nikt@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      I’d have no issue with you calling me ma’am or whatever you feel comfortable with, but that’s only because that part of my identity is not something I’ve struggled with for much of my life.

      I totally understand and empathize with people for whom perceived gender is not what they identify as, and I’m 100% in support of ensuring that everyone has the right to be referred to by their chosen pronouns.

      My point is that I worry that this issue is overshadowing other issues that I think are existentially threatening to our entire way of life.

      We’re busying ourselves over respectful word use, while the world crumbles around us.

      Do you think anyone will respect anyone’s pronouns when the world’s superpowers are run by fascist governments or our ecosystems and food production have collapsed?

        • nikt@lemmy.ca
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          11 months ago

          That’s exactly the point. There is a cost. The news media and the public discourse has limited bandwidth. There are only so many things we can talk about and fight for at any given time, and to me it seems like this issue may be drowning out more existential issues.

          The irony is that the argument over pronouns is intentionally being amplified by right wing media and activists. They’re trolling us into being outraged about this, and we’re falling right into their trap.

          It’s classic bikeshedding being used against us, and most of us seem to be entirely unaware.

            • Rocket@lemmy.ca
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              11 months ago

              Are you seriously finding calling people by correct pronouns difficult?

              How would you ever know? You are not going to use third-person pronouns in front of the subject and there is no contention around the use of second-person pronouns that I am aware of. If you use the wrong third-person pronoun in front of others on the rare occasion that you need to talk about someone, they aren’t going to notice or care.

              If there’s a bandwidth issue and right wing people are so concerned about it

              He said they are trolling you, not that they have concern. There is nothing to be concerned about.