4 ms·

Just a few points to present another perspective. - RMS's main reason for introducing "per, pers, ..." was to use them in written English; this was just his ow

Just a few points to present another perspective. - RMS's main reason for introducing "per, pers, ..." was to use them in written English; this was just his own weird solution to a problem that a lot of people have noticed in modern English, the lack of a good singular pronoun for "a person" in general, without referring to anyone in particular. Lots of people have come up with crazy ideas for this, not many people are passionate enough about their use of language to write long blog posts about them, but, well, rms isn't everyone. - Using people's preferred names is a matter of common courtesy, and this has been the case pretty much for all time. People having preferred pronouns, in contrast, is relatively new, and even 50 years ago nobody would have been familiar with this idea. It would be charitable to not judge an older generation by the standards of the young when something is changing even within our lifetimes. - Insisting on using only full names would be bizarre, but surely nobody would take that as a personal attack, because presumably nobody would feel "singled out" by this. I think if you want to know if RMS was trying to antagonize non-binary folks or if he was rather just being prickly and a little eccentric about language, you would need to look further than this one idea of his. As far as I know, he is rather progressive on these issues, and he also has a history of passionately advocating unusual word choices, almost none of which have caught on, so I would lean towards this being just another example of his eccentric opinions about language, rather than trying to antagonize anyone.

pseudalopex 7y ago
Nobody said he was trying to antagonize nonbinary people. The problem is how he responded when people told him he had. People having preferred pronouns is a new idea in most English speaking cultures because intersex, transgender, and nonbinary identities are new ideas in most English speaking cultures. Stallman doesn't use an older generation's standard. He says we should respect other people's gender identities by using the appropriate pronouns.[1] Many people felt singled out when Facebook insisted on full and legal names, for what it's worth.[2] [1] https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_real-name_policy_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_real-name_policy_cont...
- inimino 7y ago
  > Nobody said he was trying to antagonize nonbinary people. The first sentence of this thread: "Dude has gone out of his way to make other people uncomfortable." I'm simply saying that, on the basis of your [1] alone, I would not come to that interpretation.

pseudalopex 7y ago

Nobody said he was trying to antagonize nonbinary people. The problem is how he responded when people told him he had. People having preferred pronouns is a new idea in most English speaking cultures because intersex, transgender, and nonbinary identities are new ideas in most English speaking cultures. Stallman doesn't use an older generation's standard. He says we should respect other people's gender identities by using the appropriate pronouns.[1] Many people felt singled out when Facebook insisted on full and legal names, for what it's worth.[2] [1] https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_real-name_policy_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_real-name_policy_cont...

inimino 7y ago
> Nobody said he was trying to antagonize nonbinary people. The first sentence of this thread: "Dude has gone out of his way to make other people uncomfortable." I'm simply saying that, on the basis of your [1] alone, I would not come to that interpretation.