No, the War in Ukraine Isn’t Because of Pronouns
Punditry’s most embarrassing obsession comes to war time and it’s just as dumb as you’d expect it to be
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A war started this week in Ukraine. Russian president Vladimir Putin finally began the campaign he’s been signaling towards for quite some time. The images coming from Ukraine have been horrifying as observers the world over admire the fighting strength of the nation’s people.
However, one initial reaction to the war has been especially embarrassing for a select group of pundits and commentators: “the war started because of pronouns.”
A number of conservative figures, like Donald Trump Jr and Ben Shapiro, along with a smattering of so-called radical feminists in Great Britain, decided to spill this brain-wormed take as Russian tanks rolled down Ukrainian roads and Russian bombs smashed into hospitals and schools alike.
Actually, “the war started because of pronouns” is an oversimplified version of their actual take, which was that Putin sensed the west was weak because we’ve been obsessing over pronouns and transgenderism. It’s peak “my pet issue is actually responsible for every problem” thinking and it’s frankly humiliating for those who espouse this.
You see, it’s not “the west” that’s been obsessed with “transgenderism,” it’s not even transgender people that’ve been obsessed with “pronouns.” It’s been the far right all along.
