ITT: exactly what the tweet was about. (Edit: It was a tumblr post.)
Y’all just saw “AI” and started frothing at the mouth about LLMs when, in the context of the tweet, it might just as well have referred to path finding AI in a video game.
It’s wild that OP would think these two things are equivalent.
Pronouns are a thing that harms nobody, and the people frothing at the mouth are going out of their way to hurt people who did nothing wrong.
AI (in its most common meaning at this time in pop culture) at the minimum is wasting electricity (and it’s associated climate impact), and has the potential to totally decimate the job market and usher in an era of inequality that we haven’t seen for hundreds of years, while simultaneously stealing from artists. The people frothing at the mouth aren’t hurting anyone.
To use a bit of hyperbole, it’s kinda like if you said:
Some of y’all see “white power” and freak out without processing anything that’s being said, like a conservative who sees a mixed race couple.
Like pretty clearly people have a good reason for freaking out when they see that, and the other side of the equation are just bad people.
[…] Pronouns are a thing that harms nobody […]
This feels like a hasty generalization. For example, if one is experiencing gender dysphoria, we could assume that misgendering them with their undesired pronouns would cause them psychological distress [1] — ie harm.
References
- Type: Article. Title: “Gender dysphoria”. Publisher: “Wikipedia”. Published: 2025-08-05T16:25Z. Accessed: 2025-08-06T04:23Z. URI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_dysphoria.
- Type: Text. Location: ¶1.
Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to inconsistency between their gender identity—their personal sense of their own gender—and their sex assigned at birth.
- Type: Text. Location: ¶1.
That is a willful misinterpretation of what I wrote.
How so? It wasn’t my intent to misrepresent your words. That being said, I do apologize if I’ve accidentally (and potentially carelessly) misinterpreted what you said. I’ll gladly fix my comment if you help me understand where my interpretation went wrong 😊
The other reply has it right, but I wanted to reply to confirm.
“Pronouns” in this context almost always means “preferred pronouns” especially wrt people who have preferred pronouns that differ from those assigned at birth.
It’s a bit hard to believe that someone would be aware of the study you mentioned, but not the common usage of the terms.
The other reply has it right, but I wanted to reply to confirm.
“Pronouns” in this context almost always means “preferred pronouns” especially wrt people who have preferred pronouns that differ from those assigned at birth. […]
I still don’t really follow. Are you arguing that the usage of one’s preferred pronouns doesn’t harm the user? Or are you arguing that the misuse of one’s pronouns causes them no harm?
I struggle to believe that someone who writes English as well as you, and is familiar with the subject can misread what I’ve written so grossly, except by intention.
using someone’s preferred pronouns doesn’t harm anyone.
This post is about being made to use someone’s preferred pronouns. The context of this whole discussion is the usage of preferred pronouns. The pronouns being discussed are preferred pronouns. The harm being discussed is harm (or lack thereof) in using them.
- Type: Article. Title: “Gender dysphoria”. Publisher: “Wikipedia”. Published: 2025-08-05T16:25Z. Accessed: 2025-08-06T04:23Z. URI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_dysphoria.
I will stop freaking out when they will stop trying to shove it down my throat all the time
That’s what she said!
^I’m sorry^
“she” being a conservative woman talking about pronouns again
