Zone1 It's That Old They/Them Argument Again

[Road Runner]

Well, I'm glad that somebody finally said it. They and them never have and never will be pronouns. (Btw, I have absolutely no idea why this video isn't at the beginning.)

 

[Pellinore]

They and them have been singular pronouns for centuries. It's called the singular they, and is used to refer to a person whose gender is unknown or unspecified.

"Someone is coming up the street, and they will be here in five minutes."

Perfectly normal.

 

[Mr. Friscus]

They and them have been singular pronouns for centuries. It's called the singular they, and is used to refer to a person whose gender is unknown or unspecified.

"Someone is coming up the street, and they will be here in five minutes."

Perfectly normal.

But there was no gender pronoun for a specifically identified individual in that sentence, so your attempt misses the mark.

“They” can be used to refer to an individual who has already been identified as “he” or “she” or by name.. but it’s not used as the primary pronoun because it would make no sense, as it would suggest a plural value to represent an individual person.

It’s like saying “these shoe”… huh? If there’s only one shoe, the proper terminology is “this shoe”… and if you have a pair it’s “these shoes”. This isn’t done to misgender/mislabel the shoe in order to deny its Existence.. it’s functional language used to convey information more efficiently, and has nothing to do with how anyone feels.

They teach you this in elementary school, I don’t get why trans activists struggle with it so often. Language serves a functional purpose, and if someone wants to try to step in to personalize functional systems of language, and try to shame or condemn those who use it going forward.. that’s just common modern Tik/Tok leftist narcissism in expecting the world to conform to one’s irregular worldview.

Believe it or not, 99.99999% of the world has far greater and more important things to worry about than the pronoun used to describe them. Food, shelter, work, family, stress, health, safety… most people focus on these. Leftists/trans activists appear to put these issues on the back burner for everyone, and want to make society all about how they feel, while condemning anyone who doesn’t take the time to celebrate them.

 

[Pellinore]

First of all, grammatically speaking, pronouns do not require the person to whom it refers to be a specific person. You're making that up.

The person who is the subject of the statement is identified as "Someone." The example works just as well by saying "A person" or "Bob's cousin" or "the new employee" or "Sam" or "Taylor" or a million other identifiers.

You are citing the rules for the plural use of the word they, but you are acting as if it is the only use, which it isn't. The singular they has been in use since the Middle Ages to refer to a single person whose gender is unspecified. They taught that in elementary school, too, and you've been using it all your life.