{"id":1586462,"date":"2022-08-03T08:05:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T12:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1586462"},"modified":"2022-08-03T08:05:59","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T12:05:59","slug":"kamala-harriss-pronoun-charade-is-about-a-lot-more-than-bad-manners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kamala-harriss-pronoun-charade-is-about-a-lot-more-than-bad-manners\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamala Harris\u2019s Pronoun Charade Is About A Lot More Than Bad Manners"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fkamala-harriss-pronoun-charade-is-about-a-lot-more-than-bad-manners%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1586462&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>When Vice President Kamala Harris <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CPCKJI2cn1U\">announced her pronouns<\/a> while introducing herself to pro-abortion disability rights activists, she also described what she was wearing: \u201cI am Kamala Harris. My pronouns are she and her. I am a woman sitting at this table wearing a blue suit.\u201d All others at the conference table mimicked the process in some way.<\/p>\n<p>The bit about clothing is supposed to be helpful to the visually impaired. My guess is that it\u2019s there to signal more woke virtue and thereby enhance the Pronoun Project.<\/p>\n<p>When the video made rounds on social media, a lot of people were amazed by the absurdity of it all. However, when high-level public figures put on such performances, the goal is to portray the behavior as normal so more will do the same until there\u2019s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/1229439\">cascade of public acceptance<\/a>. Indeed, declaring one\u2019s pronouns\u2014saying things like \u201cI go by he\/him\u201d or \u201cMy pronouns are xi\/xir\/they\u201d\u2014has become a ritual in much of academia and the corporate world, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spiked-online.com\/2022\/06\/29\/no-one-should-be-forced-to-declare-their-pronouns\/\">where people have started<\/a> wearing pronoun badges.<\/p>\n<p>Those who promote the practice claim it\u2019s only about good manners and avoiding the risk of marginalizing people by making assumptions about how they identify. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Progressive Pronoun Project is plain old social engineering. And it disrupts the natural flow of human communication at every level. We all know that.<\/p>\n<h2>Abuse of Language Is the Centerpiece of Tyranny<\/h2>\n<p>George Orwell famously <a href=\"http:\/\/www.public-library.uk\/ebooks\/72\/30.pdf\">warned<\/a> that if we keep corrupting the English language, we\u2019ll eventually start spouting dangerous nonsense like \u201cFreedom is slavery\u201d and \u201cWar is peace.\u201d Indeed, turning the language into unintelligible mush serves to turn people into fools who can be controlled. We\u2019ve all seen how the media and our institutions are enforcing this farce. This abuse of language is bound to destabilize thought, especially in children.<\/p>\n<p>There are really no good manners to be found in these tyrannical circus acts. Rather, there\u2019s only the Alinskyite rule to use the good manners of good people against them in order to attain power. How does this work?<\/p>\n<p>There is far more to pronoun usage than someone\u2019s personal preference in how he or she wishes to have others refer to him or her. The woke tyranny affects <em>all<\/em> pronoun usage because it de-constructs our entire language.<\/p>\n<p>A pronoun must have a clear antecedent and context if a statement is to be universally understood. Using unintelligible pronouns with vague antecedents undermines this comprehension.<\/p>\n<p>If we accommodate the pronoun police, we contribute to communication failure. And that\u2019s isolating. If we cannot speak openly to others, we end up more alone, even atomized, and therefore easier to control. Ultimately, the craze to abuse pronouns drifts towards <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/nihilism\">nihilism<\/a> because it replaces ordered communication with chaos.<\/p>\n<h2>Using Woke Pronouns Undermines the Function of Language<\/h2>\n<p>Few people appreciate the extremely important role pronouns play in the structure of language. Linguists describe pronouns as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thoughtco.com\/function-word-grammar-1690876\">function words<\/a>.\u201d They are not meant to describe content like other parts of speech, such as adjectives, nouns, or verbs. Unlike pronouns, those don\u2019t have antecedents.<\/p>\n<p>We can often make up new nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs that <em>enhance<\/em> understanding by communicating new ideas or moods. For example, \u201cWhen Junior fired that blaster-offer, it light-yeared itself into the blue in a tsunamied instant!\u201d We cannot do that with pronouns because they are <em>referential<\/em> terms: They indicate relationships to words or terms that precede them in speech and writing. Toddlers instinctively understand the distinction when they are learning language.<\/p>\n<p>By way of illustration, follow the bold italics to see how dependent <strong><em>our<\/em><\/strong> language is on pronouns. How did <strong><em>we<\/em><\/strong> allow the current social chaos to happen? <strong><em>Who<\/em><\/strong> knows? (<strong><em>Anyone<\/em><\/strong>?) <strong><em>It<\/em> <\/strong>metastasized because <strong><em>we<\/em><\/strong> didn\u2019t push back.<\/p>\n<p>In part, <strong><em>this<\/em><\/strong> resulted from the ignorance cultivated in education. <strong><em>Much<\/em><\/strong> was also due to <strong><em>our<\/em><\/strong> longstanding faith that <strong><em>all<\/em><\/strong> strive for a society based on fairness and due process. <strong><em>Few<\/em><\/strong> realize that power elites <strong><em>who<\/em><\/strong> are invested in social engineering frequently try to isolate <strong><em>us<\/em><\/strong> in order to control <strong><em>everybody<\/em><\/strong>, often by compelling <strong><em>their<\/em><\/strong> speech. However <strong><em>it<\/em><\/strong> happened, pronoun enforcement has become a political feature in the media, Big Tech, and all <strong><em>our<\/em><\/strong> institutions.<em> <strong>Such<\/strong><\/em> is the absurdity of <strong><em>our<\/em><\/strong> times.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>You<\/em><\/strong> should be able to see that pronouns are like indispensable scaffolding upon which <strong><em>our<\/em><\/strong> entire language depends. So <strong><em>let\u2019s<\/em><\/strong> not mess with <strong><em>them<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>If pronouns are never used\u2014or if we force improper use of them\u2014we end up with a massive communication breakdown. Let\u2019s say Jenny\u2019s preferred pronouns are \u201ccake\/cake\/cakeself\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/redstate.com\/alexparker\/2022\/05\/12\/wokedoms-newest-confection-takes-the-cake-introducing-cake-gender-n563889\">(now that \u201ccake\u201d has joined the legions of woke pronouns)<\/a>. If you sincerely report: \u201cJenny said cake wants to walk by cakeself\u201d instead of \u201cJenny said she wants to walk by herself,\u201d you\u2019ve gone down the rabbit hole. Jenny has invented a secret language that forces everyone she encounters to get a detailed briefing before engaging in the remnants of a conversation.<\/p>\n<p>Abuse of language begins with the abuse of function words like pronouns. As Orwell warned, this is part and parcel of social engineering for tyranny.<\/p>\n<p>We ought to know by now that gender ideologists are not interested in \u201cequity.\u201d Gender activists aren\u2019t sincere. Most of them don\u2019t even follow their own rules. <\/p>\n<p>A good example is the self-identified nonbinary individual who insists you use the plural pronouns \u201cthey\/them\/their\/theirs\/themselves\u201d whenever referring to him or to her. At the same time, that person tends to use only the first-person singular pronouns \u201cI\/me\/my\/mine\/myself\u201d when referring back to himself or herself. To be consistent, such activists should instead use the first-person plural pronouns \u201cwe\/us\/our\/ours\/ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oh, sure, they\u2019ll tell you that you should use \u201cthey\u201d in the singular. (But they doesn\u2019t really mean it, does they?) Yes, there are occasions in standard grammar when \u201cthey\u201d\u2014with the corresponding plural verb\u2014can be used to refer to an unknown, nameless person or thing. But the whole point of pronoun protocols is supposedly to help people live out their authentic, not unknown, self or \u201cselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So it\u2019s beyond disingenuous to see the plural pronoun \u201cthey\u201d so often treated this way. One of countless stark examples comes from a they-themist named Samuel Brinton, whom the Biden administration recently appointed to be a deputy assistant secretary in the Department of Energy. Brinton <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sbrinton\/status\/1542288527920185344\">insists on using the singular \u201cI\/me,\u201d not plural \u201cwe\/us.\u201d<\/a> Yet he demands everyone else to engage in the contortions of referring to him as \u201cthey\u201d with corresponding plural verbs.<\/p>\n<p>At best, forcing people into such games of verbal whack-a-mole is extremely bad manners. At worst, it\u2019s a direct assault on human communication. If we don\u2019t comply with it, we\u2019ll eventually see gender ideology hoisted with its own petard.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Stella Morabito is a senior contributor at The Federalist. Her essays have also appeared in the Washington Examiner, American Thinker, Public Discourse, Human Life Review, New Oxford Review. In her previous work as an intelligence analyst, she focused on various aspects of Russian and Soviet politics, including communist media and propaganda. She has also raised three children, served as a public school substitute teacher, and homeschooled for several years as well. She has a B.A. in journalism and international relations from the University of Southern California and a Master\u2019s degree in Russian and Soviet history, also from USC. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stella_morabito\">Follow Stella on Twitter.<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Vice President Kamala Harris announced her pronouns while introducing herself to pro-abortion disability rights activists, she also described what she was wearing: \u201cI am Kamala Harris. My pronouns are<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":1897885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1586462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_finder_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/03\/kamala-harriss-pronoun-charade-is-about-a-lot-more-than-bad-manners\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=kamala-harriss-pronoun-charade-is-about-a-lot-more-than-bad-manners","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1586462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1586462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1586462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1586462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}