First off, we’re up against a big boatload of stupid. Something I posted on Bluesky —
Right-wing activists found pronouns! Oh, no! Pronouns are of the devil. We must not use them. Wait … “we” is a pronoun! And so is “them”! See how sneaky they are! Whups, “they” is a pronoun! There is no escape! What will (pronoun deleted) do? www.kpbs.org/news/local/2…
— Barbara O’Brien (@mahabarbara.bsky.social) September 13, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Recently I’ve heard several statements coming from MAGAts about pronouns that make me suspect they don’t know what pronouns are. But pronouns are bad, because transsexuals have pronouns. Or something.
I have joked about giving the late Charlie Kirk a state funeral. It appears we are. WaPo reports,
The memorial for Kirk, a 31-year-old activist and online provocateur who built Turning Point USA, an organization growing the right’s reach among young voters, is scheduled for next Sunday in the Phoenix area at State Farm Stadium, where the Arizona Cardinals play. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Cabinet secretaries and members of Congress are expected to attend, according to people familiar with the planning who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the details.
Who is paying for this? It was bad enough that Kirk’s body got flown from Utah to Arizona on Air Force Two, accompanied by the Vice President, and with a military detail carrying the casket across the tarmac even though Kirk never served in the military. But who is paying to rent a football stadium? If it’s Turning Point, okay. If it’s U.S. taxpayers, not so much. And it’s obvious a lot of taxpayer money is going into this sendoff, even if Turning Point is paying for the stadium. This is all utterly inappropriate.
We seem to be in a phase of falling into opposing camps as to whether the shooter was Left-Wing or Right-Wing. I’ve read a lot of arguments, including the arguments that Tyler Robinson, the accused, was a Groyper. Anything is possible, but from what I’ve seen Robinson is mostly an immature young man utterly immersed in Gamer/Internet culture with no clearly definable political orientation. And yeah, I know the story about the old feud between Nick Fuentes and Charlie Kirk and that Robinson posted a Groyper meme on the web some time or another. The feud was resolved some time ago, and Robinson posted a lot of random things on the Internet that don’t add up to a clear ideological picture. Although the Right is certainly having a field day over the revelation that Robinson’s romantic partner is transitioning to being a woman. but being sympathetic to transsexuals is not a sure sign that someone is a political Leftie. There are, in fact, right-wing trans people.
Here’s another Bluesky post from someone else.
Meanwhile in Korean media there is clarity that Trump directed this raid out of spite following his Oval Office meeting with the ROK President, who pushed back aggressively on Trump’s praise for the North Korean dictator. They’re right. US media have no clue of what’s going on.
— Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) September 14, 2025 at 1:29 PM
I’ve read some accounts of Trump’s White House meeting with the president of South Korea, and it seems Trump did go on and on about what a great guy Kim Jong Un is. Which is a really bizarre thing to do when you’re meeting with the president of South Korea. But the U.S. news stories didn’t say anything about the South Korean president pushing back. Which doesn’t mean he didn’t. But this whole thing to me just smacks of inept management. Nobody is actually in charge.
Speaking of inept, note that Trump has pretty much destroyed U.S. cancer research. He doesn’t want to pay for it, apparently.
Demanding people call someone a them or a zer or any one of countless made up pronouns is sane to you? It would be laughable if it wasn’t so demented.
People in The UK have been abused and arrested for “mis-gendering”, so yes it isn’t only bad it is delusional and you have no idea how many moderate people are fed up with the “demands” Trans people make. If Trans are just a very small percent of the population why are their demands so important? They have the same rights as everyone has just not the special rights they seem to require.
You do know that all language is made up, and that words are always being added to languages?
Citation required.
(I’m editing this because my initial response was unduly harsh, and I apoligize.)
There was a headline that said right-wing activists found pronouns on social media. Of course they did; you can't speak English without using pronouns. By my count I've used eight pronouns so far in the comment. My comment was making fun of the headline.
For reference: https://www.scribbr.com/nouns-and-pronouns/pronouns/
But if you read the article it gets weirder. A WOMAN navy doctor wrote on her LinkedIn account that she uses she/her pronouns. And somehow this got some wingnuts so worked up that they complained to Secretary of Defense/War Pete Hegseth, who fired her. What the bleep? So you're upset that a woman doctor wants to be referred to as "she"? I don't think I'm the one who is demented here.
I hope someday, you have a *perfect* understanding of what it's like to have a group of bullies spit on you, for being different, so you can realize that you have absolutely no reason to complain, because "not having people hock loogies on you" is a special right you feel you should be able to demand.
Also, you're ugly, and your mother dresses you funny.
Ms. Rowling has entered the discussion.
Has this actually been reported/confirmed by anyone outside the rightwing fever swamp?
I believe it has, yes, but some publications are still tip-toeing around it. Axios and Forbes say the partner is transitioning. The New York Times attributes this information entirely to the governor of Utah in a way that made it seem they weren't entirely sure about it.
"Recently I’ve heard several statements coming from MAGAts about pronouns that make me suspect they don’t know what pronouns are"
Your run of the mill magat voter may not know what a pronoun is but the magats in the GOP, house, senate, media certainly know what pronouns are. They use the pronoun argument in the context of gender id's because it works. The GOP doesn't believe anything unless it helps them help onto power. If the democrats are going to spend their energy defending the use of gender pronouns then we will lose again and again. Right or wrong there really is nothing more offensive to a sizable majority of Americans than the caricature of a middle aged man "transitioning" to a middle aged woman, the GOP understands that, they used it to get Stump elected and they are using it now to try and bait the left into defending a mass shooter and an "assassin".
The pronouns kerfluffle is a result of a language that is inadequate to the task.
A much simpler hurdle to overcome, a start toward resolving this issue, is to come to terms with "cis" and "trans". A very simple, binary concept that reactionaries refuse to entertain. Start here. The pronouns are an extra confusing layer on top of it.
My only issue with pronouns is that English really can't handle using plural pronouns with a singular subject. Doing so often makes a hash of the rest of the sentence. And I was an editor for too many years to not find singular/plural mixups really jarring. I can usually get around the "they" issue by either making the subject plural or finding another way to refer to the person, either by name or some other identifier — the speaker, the shop owner, the letter writer, etc. But English really needs a gender neutral singular personal pronoun.
When I was a new editor back in the early 1970s the big thing in academia was to root out sexist language, such as assuming any random group of people are automatically all men, or using "man" to stand in for "humans." And changing constructions like "postmen" to "postal workers." Sometimes it got silly, such as a passage in a social studies book in which somebody changed "Viking oarsmen" to "Viking oarspeople." Please.
I remember those days. As a reader, it was jarring also. "Viking oarspeople" made me laugh.
Nick Fuentes seemed frantic as he pleaded with followers to turn down the violence–he would disavow any violence by them. He may have thought the killer was his people.
He's been complaining his group was framed. That might be why.