Mayor Kenney is losing it.
A sad announcement mourning a life lost was turned into progressive parody by the mayor’s office. Here’s the first paragraph with my edits:
“Once again our city has been rocked by senseless gun violence. Tonight, we tragically lost a 15-year-old who had their entire life ahead of them. I extend my deepest condolences to their family during this unimaginable time. The lives of at least two other teenage victims will also never be the same, as they now have to recover from gunshot wounds that ravaged their young bodies, and face the long-term impacts of experiencing this trauma.”
In reality, the dead victim was a 15-year-old boy who had his entire life in front of him. And he, not them, had a family, which mourns.
Now — a small percentage of you may be thinking, well, maybe they were nonbinary and thought of himself as they.
In that case, did Kenney have their families’ permission to out their son offspring?
Naw, you know what? It’s just our thumbsucking mayor taking gender neutering to ridiculous lengths.
Yes, I know some grammarians are beginning to accept “their” when the person’s gender is not known, replacing the standard “him or her.” It’s another example of norms being destroyed not because they are wrong, but because people are lazy and progressives find “rules” and “norms” oppressive.
Progressives, you gotta love ‘em. (Because there are laws against trapping them.)
HAPPY FRIDAY !!!
pallie,
hmmmm. pallie. ( gender neutral ? )
I don’t try to understand all of the changes taking place. Me, with a half baked brain, don’t understand street slang. Be it, jive, ghetto, ebonics or what ever. I have enough trouble with English as a first language.
side bar here. I know (met ) a lot of first generation immigrants. Many are just grasping our version of the English
language. Throw in some street lingo and they are lost !
Now we have gender neutral, gender non existing and no gender at all. PERFECT ! I’m old school and trying. I speak using the language taught to me in the ’50s & ’60s. While in school. The following years were there own form of education. When I use; dem, dose, dees and dain’t, they are adjoined to humor ( usually ). I’ll contimue being the dinosaur that I am, and attempt the Queen’s English “asbestos” I can !
Tony
Clint Eastwood once said; “Mans got to know his limitations.” With that in mind, I believe the Mayor needs a recent Charter school graduate as they score higher than any public school graduate, to check for mistakes and make sure he is up to date on the progressive English language now in usage in politically incorrect circles. I must admit having known the Mayor his favorite response many years ago when pressed to embellish on his background he replied; “I ain’t got no bringings up but I got whass it takes.
I’d prefer he hire a parochial school graduate. They can diagram a sentence and haven’t been stuffed full of PC BS.
A Central grad (my alma mater) would be fine.
I agree. This is total B.S. I refuse to use that form when I know the sex of the person involved and if someone doesn’t like it, tough. This is really carrying things way too far. This loser would do better to show some actual competence in running the city than pandering to imaginary victims.
Philadelphia, PA
Dear Stu,
These contortions of the English language basically function like political “tribal markings.” If you conform, then they know where you stand politically; but if you don’t conform, they still know where you stand politically. The function is to divide up people and sort out those who “belong” to a favored in-group and distinguish them from “opponents.”
What is it that President Bush II used to say? “If you are not with us, then you are against us.” Its all a matter of “moral clarity”? Or, is it a linguistic instrument of polarization?
People in Europe sometimes do similar things with local “dialects,” and accents, which can differ significantly from one town to the next. I knew people in Europe who wouldn’t go up the road 20 miles to take a job, because they knew that as soon as they opened their mouth, everyone would know “you are not from here!” That means you are at the bottom of the ladder and can never rise –so strong is (was?) the local favoritism. Strange but true.
So “pc” English looks somewhat like an “insider” political dialect. But is the Mayor not mayor of all of us equally?
H.G. Callaway
Pronunciation used to tell class differences. Now words show political standing, or social.
Philadelphia, PA
Dear Stu,
True, pronunciation used to show “class standing.” There is still some of that around, though rarely. In Europe, in my experience, this kind of marking was more pronounced, since locals could sometimes not even understand people outside their own dialect group. The politicians would speak with “regional coloring,” so as to identify with ordinary people while maintaining a distance.
At one point I used to teach people how to pronounce English –including U.S. soldiers who were non-native speakers of English. This kind of work affects the pronunciation of the teachers, making it more precise –and, for better or worse, erasing much that is otherwise distinctive of background.
Regional accents still have their place in American speech. Being a Philadelphia by choice, you are perhaps aware of the affects and interpretation of a New York accent locally? It is not exactly a “class” thing. Perhaps you’d say its “social”?
There is a line running across NJ, just north of Trenton. Above the line people sound more like NYC, and below the line more like Philly. (Most of the power and money is above the line.)
H.G. Callaway
Kenney acts as if he’s been “gelded.” What a spineless jellyfish of a libbie/progressive sycophant. I thought Mike Nutter was as fine a mayor this city had since I could remember, and my way-back takes me to James H. J. Tate. Mike Nutter is Superman to the tenth power compared to this amoeba, Kenney.
Hello Mr. Bykofsky,
Growing up in a post-WW2 conservative household, I was expected to address people respectfully & formally- which would include usage of titles such as Miss, Mrs. and Mr. Following the 60’s/70’s feminist movement, I adapted and have used Ms. This also includes my liberal usage of Ma’am and Sir when speaking with folks. I still use these (hopefully very polite) references today. The only exceptions are very close acquaintances of mine.
However, your article has drawn my attention to my offensive ways- as unintended as they may have been. Please accept my apologies for “outing” you at the beginning of this comment by referring to you as Mr. I hope I did not offend you by identifying your gender. From hence forward, I will refer to you in the non-descript title of “Hey you.” Just trying to do my part.
Thank you!
I am not offended although I prefer the personal pronoun of “Majesty.”
If the “Mister” is not a “Mister,” no insult was intended, such as saying “Merry Christmas” to someone who is an atheist.
Why do normal people using normal language feel it is necessary to pander to the gender idiots? Use ‘he’ and ‘she’ and let the chips fall where they may, What an an IT do to you anyway other than hit you with his/her/its purse?
Dear Stu,
Just catching up your blogs as I was away in a Normal State where people are not locked in their homes.
I’m sick of Mayor Kenney and his PC nonsense. He should be concerned about all the CRIME in Philly and not
gender. He’s too busy replacing Columbus Day to be concerned about Philadelphia’s very HIGH crime rate.
Can we put him or is IT on a bus and send IT somewhere???
96 homicides as of last night…30% increase.
And that’s when it’s cold. Who knows in the heat of summer, and the most certain anarchy and destruction to be experienced over this ridiculous george floyd bullshit.
I wish we could, but we are stuck.