What Were Robespierre’s Pronouns? - WSJ

What Were Robespierre’s Pronouns? - WSJ
"We often make historical parallels here.
History doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme, as clever people say.
And sometimes it hiccups.
Here is a hiccup.
We start with the moral and political catastrophe that was the French Revolution.
It was more a nationwide psychotic break than a revolt—a great nation at its own throat, swept by a spirit not only of regicide but suicide.
For 10 years they simply enjoyed killing each other.
...It was a revolution largely run by sociopaths.
One, Robespierre, the “messianic schoolmaster,” saw it as an opportunity for the moral instruction of the nation.
...There would be pageants, and new names for things.
They would change time itself!
...So here is our parallel, our hiccup. 
I thought of all this this week because I’ve been thinking about the language and behavioral directives that have been coming at us from the social and sexual justice warriors who are renaming things and attempting to control the language in America.
There is the latest speech guide from the academy, the Inclusive Communications Task Force at Colorado State University. 

• Don’t call people “American,” it directs: “This erases other cultures.” 
• Don’t say a person is mad or a lunatic, call him “surprising/wild” or “sad.” 
• “Eskimo,” “freshman” and “illegal alien” are out. 
• “You guys” should be replaced by “all/folks.” 
• Don’t say “male” or “female”; say “man,” “woman” or “gender non-binary.”

...there’s an aspect of self-infatuation, of arrogance, in telling people they must reorder the common language to suit your ideological preferences.
There is something mad in thinking you should control the names of things.
...I see in it a spirit similar to that of the Terror.
There is a tone of, “I am your moral teacher.
Because you are incapable of sensitivity, I will help you, dumb farmer.
I will start with the language you speak.”
An odd thing is they always insist they’re doing this in the name of kindness and large-spiritedness. And yet, have you ever met them?
They’re not individually kind or large-spirited.
They’re more like messianic schoolmasters.
Offices and schools are forced to grapple with all the new gender-neutral pronouns.
Here a handy guide from a website purporting to help human-resources departments in midsize businesses.
It is headlined. “Gender Neutral Pronouns—What They Are & How to Use Them.”

• He/She—Zie, Sie, Ey, Ve, Tey, E
• Him/Her—Zim, Sie, Em, Ver, Ter, Em
• His/Her—Zir, Hir, Eir, Vis, Tem, Eir
• Himself/Herself—Zieself, Hirself, Eirself, Verself, Terself, Emself

It’s wrong, when you meet a new co-worker, to ask his pronouns.
(We don’t say “preferred” pronouns—that “implies someone’s gender is a preference”!)
You don’t want him wondering if you think he’s transgender or nonbinary.
Instead, introduce yourself in a way that summons his pronouns: “Hi, I’m Jim and my pronoun is he/him.”
 Use “they” a lot.
It’s gender neutral.
Suggested sentence: “I spoke to the marketing director and they said they’d get back to me.”
This is grammatically incorrect but so what?
...And there are the office arguments about bathroom policy, which I gather are reaching some new peak.
...It’s all insane.
All of it.
But we’re moving forward, renaming the months and the sexes, reordering the language.
You wonder how the people who push all this got so much power.
But then, how did Robespierre?"
Read it all!!