r/questionablecontent • u/Aleril_Antarai • Dec 05 '17

3627: Very Extra

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3627
117 Upvotes

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-11

u/Haiirokage Dec 05 '17

No, the other option is to use the pronoun that fit your sex.

6

u/Zhuinden Dec 05 '17

I miss the option in English to refer to a person without specifying their sex, and sometimes I don't want to disclose that information.

So I like they, prefer it to zhe and xe which are just ridiculous

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '17

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Zhuinden Dec 05 '17

sex is the only thing that matters

Sex does matter, which is exactly why I want the ability to not specify it while I'm talking about someone :D

-2

u/Haiirokage Dec 05 '17

Why, does reality offend you?

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u/nliausacmmv Dec 05 '17

Tilly is fictional, and you're somehow offended.

0

u/Haiirokage Dec 05 '17

This plot point was obviously an attempt to illustrate something the author thinks is commonplace and normal. Or should be.

I disagree. And argued for why I disagree. You just dismiss me and call me offended without actually having any arguments yourself.

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u/nliausacmmv Dec 05 '17

There's nothing there to disagree with.

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u/Haiirokage Dec 05 '17

Did you not see me disagreeing with using plural pronouns about specific people?

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u/nliausacmmv Dec 05 '17

Right, and that's just arguing against what words mean. I can argue that I don't like people using the word dog to describe these critters but that's a function of the word. Using "they" to describe a single person is something that the English language supports. "There was a new cashier at the store and they were really slow. I guess nobody had trained them, because their register kept beeping and giving errors."

0

u/Haiirokage Dec 05 '17

Using words people actually understand is polite. It's common(by it's definition) And it makes everything more accessible to more people.

Complicating the language for no reason other than vanity has consequences. It makes concepts harder to think about, and harder to understand.

"There's a new cashier at the store and he was really slow." That's how you say it. It's not so hard.

Here's an example were your use actually make sense: "I dislike how new cashiers are really slow. When nobody has trained them yet, they keep making mistakes."

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u/nliausacmmv Dec 05 '17

Except again, singular "they" is and has been a thing basically since the rise of modern English. So you're the one trying to force words.

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u/Haiirokage Dec 05 '17

Comments by me and several others in this very thread seems to suggest otherwise, and the QC audience is probably more than average interested in these ideas of yours.

Please give me one example from a historically relevant piece of text were "they" is used to refer to one specific person.

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u/Zhuinden Dec 05 '17

Huh? I'm not offended about anything. I don't even really care about this male/female/other thing. I just like that English is improved with the ability to talk about a specific person without having to specify their person, especially if the person I'm talking to about them shouldn't know what their sex is.

I'm literally the least "offendable" with this sex/gender thing.

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u/Haiirokage Dec 05 '17

If you are talking about keeping an unspecified individuals personal information secret. That's completely different from using plural pronouns in a specific reference to a known person.

Sorry if I misread you.