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Comment by gaius_baltar | Hacker News Reader

> He is being called a transphobe because he wants English to contain a new word which is singular and non gendered because he doesn't think 'they' is appropriate since it has historically been collective. Since he uses his new invented word for this purpose, he is being called transphobic for not respecting peoples choice to use 'they'.

Am I missing something or isn't this exactly what neutral language folks do with their made-up pronouns (Xe/Xem etc)? So they singled out Stallman for doing the same?

Also, interesting to see another flagged thread that points to an article with strictly factual information from a very popular source here.

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From what I can tell, the problem they see is that stallman is proposing one standard word which applies and is correct for everyone rather than allowing everyone to create their own words and respecting their choices.

Very few people care about newly invented pronouns. The main problem people have with Stallman and pronouns is he refuses to use the standard word and uses a strange and alienating word instead.

But Stallman would argue that the standard word, if we're talking about 'they', 'them' and 'their', is inappropriate. He acknowledges that these words have historically been used in the singular, but convincingly points out that this merely proves that our ancestors also faced the same paucity of choice for referring to the indefinite singular.

What Stallman didn't employ in his defence, and a fact also ignored by many proponents of 'they' who regularly cite its historical usage as proof of transphobia in anyone who refuses to engage in the practice the now, is that this historical usage was applied when the subject of the sentence was indefinite, whereas the modern call to use 'they' is in the case of a specific, known person. This usage does not have a long linguistic history, regardless of whether the existence of such would, in itself, form compelling grounds on which to continue its usage.

Stallman's arguments don't make the new words less strange and alienating in practice.

His claim about our ancestors is wrong. They made up new words all the time. Including alternatives to singular they.

Stallman uses the new pronouns for any subject not known to be male or female. Singular they was used the same way historically.

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