Brown University is an Ivy League school, such that one might suppose the education to be received will be worth the cost and effort, and assure its graduates of a successful and happy life in whatever their endeavors. But the acceptance letter sent out this year might give rise to some doubts.
The problem isn’t that you didn’t get in, but that “they” did.
Brown University has pushed these changes even further in its acceptance letters this year by using “they” as the “gender-inclusive” pronoun. Thus the letter refers to “their” achievements when referring to the singular admitted student.
For many, the use of such plural pronouns for a single individual is confusing and ungrammatical. However, the Associated Press recently adopted the use of “they” as a preferred pronoun in recognition of transexual and other individuals who may not be comfortable with traditional genders.
The AP style book has long been a source of acceptable writing. It’s no Strunk and White, but still. And if they AP says plural pronouns can be used for single individuals, it can’t be confusing and ungrammatical. But more importantly, it will prevent those who eschew traditional genders from feeling uncomfortable.
These new designations have led to an equally elastic list of pronouns. So at the University of Vermont, students can choose “he,” “she,” “they,” and “ze,” as well as “name only.” Other options are captures on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee card given to faculty and students:
Put aside for a moment the question of whether the discomfort of a tiny percentage of the population, plus its far larger group of supporters who deeply desire to feel other people’s pain and end the oppression of comprehensible word usage, is worth the bastardization of a language?
If Brown is the right place for you or your children, you better hope it is, because if this goes the way of Ebonics and new math, that’s going to be a very expensive lesson when junior can’t get a job because the interviewer thought his inability to speak using words that made any sense at all reflected poorly on his intelligence and education.
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[Ed. Note: Comment deleted. Copyright. It’s a thing. And it’s insanely stupid and irrelevant, which is also a thing.]
The Economist issue of April 1 (yes, I know . . .) includes a column that points out that the use of “their” as a singular and plural is analogous to “you/your”–and dates back to 1375. If American English is going to include a non-masculine-default gender-neutral pronoun, we could do worse.
The massive failure of this pretentious horseshit is that it’s not 1375 anymore and the organic development of language has happened whether those who want to pretend their demands of discomfort entitle them to force this nonsense into the vernacular like it or not. It’s not proper English and hasn’t been for a long time. In a few days, some new social justice demands will arise and this will either be forgotten or racist or sexist or something.
Over the years, consider the words used to describe black people, or the handicapped, or women. One day, one word is the only acceptable word, and others are racist and insulting. The next day, the words that was absolutely critical the day before is now a racist slur. This is stupid crap, and the rationalizations for it are idiotic. While we could always do worse, we could also do a lot better by telling this offended children to grow up.
We’re up to our eyeballs in meaningless verbiage and worthless rhetoric. The vast majority of America isn’t going to play that game, and the pseudo-intellectuals bolstering the idiot children won’t be there when they learn that nobody gives a shit about their pronouns or their hurt feelings. Everybody can’t get a job as a gender studies professor.
But isn’t that exactly the “organic development of language?” Someone throws new/recycled language against the wall, and we see a generation later if it has stuck?
No. Organic means it comes bottom up, not top down. It just gets used and gains traction on its own, not the Social Justice gods command you to use it upon pain of being called names (or worse). So no. Not at all.
I have it on good authority that the luncheons served at the Académie française are all organic, gluten-free, free-range, hormone-free, non-GMO, and utterly devoid of any character.
Great idea. Let’s misgender 99 out of 100 women so that people who refuse to acknowledge the difference between biological sex and patriarchal gender roles won’t be offended.
At least these folks are giving future generations of liberals something to move forward from.
Stop conflating liberals with progressives. If there was still a party that reflected liberal ideology, Trump wouldn’t be president.
The liberals will be the ones moving forward. The progressives will probably be MRAs with white hoods by that point.
I think we’re past that already.
I too pine for that elusive past where Democrats were classical liberals and Republicans were classical liberals. Everything was hunky-dory back then, or so I’m told. The fact that those politics lead directly to where we are now is of no concern.
But for the fact that what you’ve said is insanely false and simplistic, you would be totally right.
I would write you a treatise instead of a flippant comment, but like you said, it really wouldn’t be worth the time. It was as insane as saying “progressives” are separate and distinct from “liberals.”
Is there some reason why your leaving stupid comments should matter to me? You do realize you’re just some random pseudonymous kid on the internet, right?
Oh wait. You’re just shit-posting me. Well done.
Short version: I think you have cut yourself on Occam’s Razor.
Long version: By that logic, conservatives and populists are the same thing. Which, I think even in the USA, is demonstrably false. There are progressives on the right side of the current political spectrum as well- some free-market SoCons get all kinds of government-happy when it comes to regulating who can believe what and where.
Government is what we let busybodies do to us.
He didn’t mean it. Nobody is that stupid. Nobody.
“they AP”
Oh no, “they” got to SHG! Damn “them”!
Was it a typo or irony? I vote for typo, but in retrospect, I may just leave it there.
The letter itself is behind the Wall Street Journal’s paywall, so I can’t see how it uses “they.” If it just used the second person, referring to “your” achievements, it wouldn’t have to upset anyone, whether SHG or SJW.
So paywallist.
“Paywallist” is the new SJW, politically correct term for what we used to call “miserly.”
Cheap. Frugal. Thrifty.
Niggardly.
You win the internets!
“If it just used the second person, referring to “your” achievements, it wouldn’t have to upset anyone”
Unless they want it to, which is how this whole thing works. In fact, I’m outraged that you would suggest such a hateful thing. Opting to dodge the issue is complicity in oppression. You have been warned. Don’t make us use the hotline.
Ashamed. Hoisted on my own petard. Why could I not shake off my privilege to recognize that there is no better flagpole from which to waive the equality banner than an admissions letter from an elite university.
Ven gesprachen vis bad ruptured Dutch,
Maken zense just donk matter zo much.
Zo Ze pers and creepers,
Ver Zhe got zem peepers?
Zounds! Meaning iz only vis crutch!
Remember the name of Roddy Piper’s movie: “THEY [EMPHASIS added] Live”?
“Artificial Person”:
“An entity (such as a corporation) created by law and given certain legal rights and duties of a human being, real or imaginary, who for the purpose of legal reasoning is treated more or less as a human being.”
– Black’s 7th Law Dictionary
Congratulations! ‘YOU’ no longer exist. But, ‘THEY’ do.
AP Style Manual was (I assume it still is) the main mind control reference at ABA Journal. For those who subscribe to that sort of thing, writing that does not conform to AP PC is subject to deletion.
After reading half these comments I want to send you a bacon maple donut to delete the entire post. Ok. A dozen.
Please. Do.
Forgive the link, but I couldn’t get this out of my head while reading this post.