@Daily I always assumed it was just like replacing the second letter in the abbreviation with a neutral "null" character, so that's probably a backwards construction right there.

@InspectorCaracal Yeah, it's like in "Latinx." (Which, if I didn't know people generally prefer "LatinEX" I'd definitely have pronounced "LaTINKS.") (This one also never comes up for me, either, really.)

@Daily .....okay I'll give you a pass for that because you are not a North American English speaker and would thus not already have the association with pronouncing Latina/Latino. >.>

@InspectorCaracal I mean, I watch more than my fair share of American TV, but yeah.

@InspectorCaracal Anyway, I, personally, for myself, don't like "Mx" because I dislike the implication of "mix" re: my gender -- it's more an absence than anything else -- but none of the issues discussed help.

I feel like, like @daHob said, changing what exists or even just getting rid of it entirely is a better solution to this issue than adding new language.

@Daily @InspectorCaracal I don't know if it is "better", I just think it has a greater chance of success

@daHob @InspectorCaracal It's nearly 1am and I should probably stop rambling.

@Daily @InspectorCaracal /grins/ ramble on, we are all friends

@daHob @InspectorCaracal While we're on the subject, y'know that troll thing of "lol I identify as an attack helicopter" -- which they've "lol cuck"ed at me once or twice --
but, like, what they don't get is that if they in genuine good faith actually identified as an attack helicopter, I guess I don't really get it, but whatever, I'll call you Chopper if you want.

Like, respecting people's identities is more important to me than it making complete sense to me.

@Daily @InspectorCaracal I guess I'm a jerk because at some point I will roll my eyes.

@daHob @InspectorCaracal Oh, I'll roll my eyes, like I do at, say, plant- or sea-themed pronouns, but if it seems even remotely genuine, that's not... relevant? That's a me-problem, it's not on the mermaid or attack helicopter I'm talking to or about.

@InspectorCaracal @daHob Which-- I don't think the "I identify as a sea" thing, which I know people do say (used to say?) is about gender in the same way that my being agender is, it's more, like, people (kids) identifying WITH not AS and applying the now-familiar gender language.

@Daily @daHob tbh as trans and therian, I get people linking the concepts, but I draw the line at anything that changes your species classification being a gender.

@InspectorCaracal @daHob Like I say, I think they're (mis-)applying the concept Gender to "I really like the sea" and that kind of thing, which is silly to me, but also, who is hurt by that?

@Daily @daHob I will refrain from philosophizing at you 😇

@InspectorCaracal @daHob Oh, I wouldn't mind, but we're definitely at the point past my bedtime where I wouldn't really get it and would nod along in that annoying way I do until one or all of us were frustrated by the whole conversation.

A good time to go to bed, I think.

@Daily @InspectorCaracal I am a skeptic and atheist and don't believe in supernatural stuff. I think that grouping folks with claims that require supernatural backing with folks who have firmly biological issues can damage the cause of folks seeking legit medical recognition.

@daHob @InspectorCaracal Oh, you're absolutely right, to be clear. If "get people to accept trans* things" were Phase One of the Queer Agenda, "sea pronouns" are firmly, like, Phase One Thousand And Twelve.

("Atheist" and "skeptic" are accurate descriptions of me, too, even if I don't call myself that or participate in communities that call themselves that.)

@InspectorCaracal @daHob I just think about that stuff because it's the kind of near-non-issue (to me) that makes bad people on the internet really mad and I have a deep, sometimes problematic, need to /understand/ where what I know I subconsciously perceive as but try not to actively treat as The Enemy is coming from.

And you did say to keep rambling, so it's very possible I talked myself into a hole at some point.

@Daily @daHob I'm mostly conflicted because I don't want to invalidate people's identities* but THEY AREN'T. GENDERS. And it makes me very angry when people propagate entirely wrong information and concepts when the accurate ones are Right. There.

Identity != Gender

@Daily @daHob Societally, though, vocabulary generally grows, not shrinks, unless things just stop being used as concepts *first*

@InspectorCaracal @Daily true true and obviously if no one coins a new term it can never exist. I'm just thinking back and it's been at least 30 years that I've heard people trying to come up with better pronouns and it never seems to take is all

@daHob @Daily *cough* it's been more like 150

@InspectorCaracal @Daily sort of my point. For whatever reason the language seems pretty impervious to new ones

@daHob @Daily Yeah, no, I agree.

Language follows society, society rarely follows language.

@InspectorCaracal @Daily indeed

@daHob @Daily it might've even been as early as the Age of Enlightenment in western civ that people started trying to make new pronouns in English?

@InspectorCaracal @daHob The oldest one Wikipedia lists, "thon" is from 1884.

@Daily @daHob So my 150 years was spot on, sweet

@Daily @InspectorCaracal I'm definitely not a mixter XD

@lizardsquid @InspectorCaracal I've never really been any good at chopping things, never mind /blending/ them.