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What's the most petty/pointless/pedantic hill you're willing to die on? (programming.dev)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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For me, it may be that the toilet paper roll needs to have the open end away from the wall. I don't want to reach under the roll to take a piece! That's ludicrous!

That or my recent addiction to correcting people when they use "less" when they should use "fewer"

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[–] 51 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (12 children)

using "he/she" to refer to an ambiguous party. just use they for fucks sake

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    agreed for humans, but I do like calling cars/boats/bikes/machines "she". makes me feel like a pirate :)

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (8 children)

    oh im not talking about that.
    i'm talking about quasi-legalese phrases like "he/she may […]" "if he/she agrees", you know. the places where "they" would be both more grammatical and easier to understand

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    he/she refers to a single individual, they can refer to multiple

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    They can also refer to an individual though.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    yeah, but its an ambiguity that can be picked at in legal settings. He/she makes it very clear that only singular person is being referred to

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    I have been learning Spanish with Babbel and the

    El/Ella Compra

    Will never not sound wrong to me. El & Ella are two people, they Compran something they don't Compra it.

    But They as a singular in English absolutely just rolls off my tongue, makes absolute sense, it is what I use.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    ohhh yeah I figured my take was only tangentially related but it's even further than I thought. yeah that stuff is silly and also denies the existence of nb folx, lame. I've been (somewhat) successful in using "they" to refer to anyone that I don't directly know the gender of for inclusivity's sake. it really isn't that hard to get used to if you're willing to make an effort.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago

    Yeah, in those cases I sometimes just put "she" instead. If they are the type of person to get upset by that (presumably because it's a he that doesn't want to be mistaken for a she), it's precisely the person I want to offend. Reasonable people don't care.

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