"I grew up so poor that I didn't even have my own pronouns.
In fact, I didn't even have my own first-name. When mom was mad she just yelled out "MATTHEWMARKLUKEJOHNPAULGEORGEJOERINGO and Dougie....git yer butts into my kitchen NOW!!!!"
Contrary to popular opinion, I didn't have eight brothers. We had a couple of neighbors who were always over at our house and our dog's name was Dougie..
Mom was of the opinion that only God knew the details but if she gave everybody a lickin' she would get the culprit and it wasn't gonna hurt any of the rest of us either.
Besides, it was the parenting trend of the decade. It was called proactive parenting. You might not have done anything wrong today, but you prolly gonna or were at least thinkin' about it."
On a more serious note
I had a conversation with somebody who was apologizing for the "pronoun culture" where she worked.
She halfheartedly agreed that hyper-focusing on "pronouns" was a distraction from the mission of organization. Then she suggested "Maybe YOU don't care about pronouns but maybe the other people you are working with do."
That landed on my mental stack with a thud. Later, as I was driving I got to thinking about it.
So what the apologist was saying was that I am supposed to encourage people to pre-judge me by my religious and political convictions and biological-reality by offering my "pronouns". After all, I am supposed to throw them on top of the table at the beginning of our first interaction so every action can be placed under the microscope and be examined through the lens tainted by THEIR biases.
By the way, I decided my pronouns are "Joe" and "Joe".
"Proactive parenting"... we kids called it "Random Acts of Violence". I told my kids about it and they snickered.... until I lined them up and said I was gonna spank them for all the stuff I DIDN'T catch them doing.... They sobered up quick. Hahhhahahah.... fun times.....
ReplyDeleteMy pronouns are Old and Getting Older.
ReplyDeleteGive your kids a whoopin every day. You may not know why ... but they do.
ReplyDeleteIf you think about our society as a large courtroom where rules are set and your ability to follow determines whether you are credible or to be discredited. Oncc discredited, you’re no longer to part of the discussion. Lawyers should not be allow to hold legislative or executive office and they should be forced to disclose that they are an attorney.
ReplyDeleteI like yer pronouns, keeps it simple and easy to remember under pressure.
ReplyDeleteGrew up on a military base (several), and as a group if some Mom caught us, we would get sent home and she would start the call and as you went by someone's house their Mom would be waiting at the back porch to swat her kid and tell the rest of us to hurry home. You then saw Moms emerging from their house and you starting running, because the longer Mom waited for you the worse it was. Then it was wait for Dad to get home for the second helping.
ReplyDeleteI’m old - when the pronoun craziness came around I preferred “Mister” and “Sir”.
ReplyDeleteAs long as we are going down that road, do you remember a TV show called Hogan's Heroes?
DeleteThe preferred greeting was Heil Hitler. I wonder how that would go over as "preferred pronouns"?
My pronouns are "Sempai" (literally "senior").
ReplyDeleteI have worked in a "pronoun" series of companies now since 2018, when this became a thing. My impression is that over a certain level this becomes a requirement - one which I have managed to avoid to this point. If that sort of thing becomes an issue, I simply revert to "y'all" and "y'all y'all" (the plural of y'all).
I have my pronouns, but I won't list them here on a family friendly blog. :-)
ReplyDeleteI was 6 before I found out my first name wasn't "Dammit Boy!"
ReplyDeleteI can't list my pronouns either, but will share them freely with any moron who asks what they are.
Neck
>"Maybe YOU don't care about pronouns but maybe the other people you are working with do."
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that this is a purely political issue.
But...we all know people who tack massive importance on specific, unimportant (to others) things. We all do that.
It's easier to see with kids and pets. Joel's dog Toby shows it with thunder, his dog bed, intruders, etc. Very important to the dog. Should Joel accomodate him or not?
If pronouns are mandated, everyone's pronoun becomes 'f**k' and 'off', but if some democrat-damaged soul needs a kind word...what would Jesus do?