Pronoun Madness at the Pentagon

Some of you, probably not a lot of you, can remember the time when young people chanted: The whole world is watching. Whatever you think of the conditions that elicited this chant, it was certainly compelling.

Now, the whole world is watching the Biden administration undermine the American military with social justice wokery. Consider that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s first command was to eliminate white supremacy in the ranks. You could not have found a more effective way to sow dissension in the ranks if such had been your goal. 

We will pass on flight suits for pregnant pilots or special boots for pregnant parachutists. The whole world is watching the Biden administration and Secretary Austin reduce the American military to a bad joke. If no one takes us seriously as a deterrent force, before you know it the Russian army will be invading Ukraine. And the other actors who might feel deterred by American military might will say to themselves-- we must strike while they are lost in their navel gazing.

Naturally, the Austin Pentagon would want to introduce a policy that does not merely sow dissension in the ranks. It makes it nearly impossible to communicate effectively with other soldiers or sailors. Why would you risk your career over misgendering a fellow soldier, by using the wrong pronoun?

If this is not madness, the term has completely lost its meaning.

Andrea Widburg has the story (via Maggie’s Farm):

Currently, we have a lot of enemies: Biden is busy trying to get us into a hot war with Putin, China is expanding its military and geographic reach, Iran continues its efforts to develop a nuclear bomb, and North Korea already has a nuclear bomb.

And while those threats face America, our Navy is focused like a laser on pronouns. This focus doesn’t just represent a complete collapse in the military’s mission. It also represents a serious threat to the military’s operational efficiency.

It ought to be self-evident. Apparently it is not. So Widburg explains:

Personalized pronouns are also a way to reduce the English language to a nonsensical joke. Take the modern pronoun-rich sentence, “Mary went to their room to gather their books and bag so that they could go to their school.” Ostensibly, that sentence is about Mary but the literal meaning is that Mary has some sort of roommate or companion sharing her room and dogging her footsteps the entire way.

Yes, indeed. Incoherent language usage puts you on the road to incoherent thinking. And naturally we want our troops to be incapable of thinking clearly. Or, do we?

Widburg continues:

Pronoun madness makes sentences even more unintelligible when you add in so-called “transgender” issues: “There are Carol and Fred. I told you about them. She is their father.”

It gets worse:

Imagine a cutting-edge, time-sensitive, urgent naval emergency. And then imagine the sailors and marines involved trying to communicate what’s going on through a welter of illogical and imaginary pronouns. If they can’t figure out who’s doing what to whom (and who is responsible for what), ships and planes crash, bullets fly, and people die. And even if they can figure it out, they may lose so much precious time that the outcome is the same.

If you counted among America’s enemies, potential or actual, would you not find this nonsense cause for rejoicing. The great American military is reducing itself to an incoherent fighting force. Or, at the least, the Defense Secretary and the Biden administration is trying to do so.

I have a very simple pronoun policy. If it’s reasonable to believe you’re female, I’ll use female pronouns for you; if it’s reasonable to believe you’re male, I’ll use male pronouns for you. If your gender is a mystery, well...I’ll make my best guess. But I will not mangle English, logic, and safety to cater to your narcissism.

Note the felicitous expression-- reasonable to believe. We do not and we cannot ask each individual to explain his or her personal pronoun policy. If such is the case, we will cease communicating and associating with people who are so confused that they have invented their own private pronouns. In a military organization, this is suicidal.