Yes, there is a day for everything, and I hate it. With a passion. With a burning hot solar flare of a passion.

I was happily unaware that today was International Pronoun Day until Twitter destroyed my blissful ignorance by informing me, via this Tweet:

Happy International Pronoun Day to you, whether you use:
• Xe/Xem
• She/Her
• Dey/Dem
• He/Him
• They/Them
• Fae/Faer
Pronouns, or any others.
This is just a short list of some example pronouns people may use – you will never know someone’s pronouns, until you ask. pic.twitter.com/HiTvr0t6DX

— LGBT Foundation (@LGBTfdn) October 19, 2022

What is it with these people? It’s bad enough that there is a day for daisies and toenail fungus, but pronouns? Pronouns have been around about as long as language has, and until recently we all understood what they mean. We often know pronouns in other languages even, just because they are among the most common words in any language. They are intended to be clear, unambiguous, and help you understand who and what is being talked about. They are basic tools of language intended to clarify, not obscure.

No longer. We have entered an age when the whole point for some people is to muddy the language for the purposes of muddying reality itself. Xe/Xem? WTF is that? I literally have no idea what you are referring to.

And that, of course, is the point. If you can’t name it you can’t define it. And if you can’t define it you are completely helpless before the people who claim to be able to. They own the definitions, and by doing so try to take ownership of reality itself.

Language is a tool human beings use to communicate–it is an abstraction from concrete reality in an attempt to convey that reality over some kind of distance, either physical or conceptual.

Language transfers ephemeral thoughts into a reality for the listener. If you strip meaning from words, invent nonsense words, and challenge the underlying concepts within the minds of others you are destroying a fundamental aspect of communal reality.

It is a power move, not an enhancement to communication. It subtracts, not adds. And worse, it subtracts from others in order to gain control over reality itself. By diminishing others, the offender enhances his own power.

There is nothing benign about this. It is an attempt to take over society by redefining everything within it. This is exactly what Orwell warned us about it, and we should refuse to participate in it in any way.

It’s not polite to give in. It isn’t a small concession made for others. You are protecting nobody’s feelings. You are being subjected to an assault.

Don’t acknowledge their power in any way. Period.