Right Speech

I was listening to the podcast "Right Mind - What does the Republican Party stand for?" from The Economist. Part of the podcast was an interview with one Patrick Deneen, a conservative political philosopher. When talking about how he thought that conservatism might create new coalitions, he mentioned that he thought that conservatism would be less about dictating to people how they should live (an odd understanding of what a movement lead by social conservatives would prioritize, in my view) and more about providing incentives and government support for the traditional ways of living that social conservatives favor. During this section, the following stood out for me:

What can we do to make up for the loss of the one-person income; enough income for one parent to be able to stay at home if they wish. Uh, he or she wishes, sorry.

Emphasis in original - seriously. I found myself asking, what's wrong with using "they" as the singular gender-indeterminate; a formulation that a lot of us had been using long before it became a pronoun for people who found themselves uncomfortable with the standard binary? It epitomizes part of the problem with the Culture Wars in the United States; the idea that one or the other side will cede some silly point, and then cast that as a victory for the other side that represents an existential threat.

There is no valid reason to believe that the term "they" must only refer to those persons who chose it as an alternative to he or she. "I see a person over there, but do not know what they are doing," has not suddenly become grammatically incorrect over the past few years. If a person with a strong gender identity wants to stay home with their children, let them. English has not demanded that one list out all the possibilities in the past, and it doesn't demand it now.

Conservatives love to deride Liberalism as demanding fealty to trivialities in speech and expression. Pot, kettle, black, fellas.