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nega OP wrote

Reply to comment by masque in Law and Civilization by nega

Indubitably I am not incorrect. I am absolutely astounded regarding this serious phobia which attempts to dissolve an anciently concrete English usage. I begin to see that this site is radically idiosyncratic in its perspectival views. Very nice people engaging in an astoundingly suffocative intolerant linguistic absolutism, which is very likely in violation of the lease agreement with the provider of the software making this site tick. I cannot find a place onsite where this draconian putative rule is published...

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masque wrote

The user etiquette page in the wiki says "Check for people's pronouns before using them, and go with they/them when it is not clear." But it's pretty difficult to find that page unless you specifically know to look for it, so I understand you not finding it on your own.

Since language is determined by usage (I'm sure you've heard this before, seeing as you referenced Wittgenstein earlier), the question of what the "correct" gender neutral pronoun is really boils down to the question of what pronoun people in a particular speaker group tend to use for someone of unknown gender. In practice, among the general population, and especially among younger people and people in left-leaning spaces like Raddle, "they" is more common than "he" when referring to people of unknown gender.

Raddle is indeed radical & somewhat idiosyncratic in its views. I'm not sure how you found it in the first place without noticing this. But the gender-neutral "they" is actually pretty mainstream at this point, and there's no point in holding on to the "anciently concrete English usage" of the generic "he."

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