State Department Gets Badly Ratioed on Tweet About ‘International Pronoun Day’

The State Department today sent out a tweet today about “International Pronoun Day” which ended up being badly ratioed.

The tweet contained a July article from their public diplomacy writer Lenore Adkins and according to her Twitter bio, Adkins is an ex-newspaper journalist whose work has appeared in the Washington Post.

“Today on International Pronouns Day, we share why many people list pronouns on their email and social media profiles,” the government entity said in the tweet.

The article states that in the United States, it’s becoming increasingly common for people to “share their pronouns” and that third-person personal pronouns are used to describe a person or people, in American English grammar, as the subject, as the object or in the possessive.

Many were critical of the tweet, with some mentioning the responsibility of the department to get Americans out of Afghanistan.

Tim Young responded, “Our enemies laugh at us.”

Our enemies laugh at us.

— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) October 20, 2021

Philosopher and author Peter Boghossian wondered, “With all of the issues the Department of State should be dealing with now, where would you rank pronoun awareness in the values hierarchy?”

With all of the issues the Department of State should be dealing with now, where would you rank pronoun awareness in the values hierarchy?

— Peter Boghossian (@peterboghossian) October 20, 2021

Twitter user “Frank Lloyd Wrong” asked, “Why are the preferred pronouns of the Americans stuck in Afghanistan?”

Why are the preferred pronouns of the Americans stuck in Afghanistan?

— Frank Lloyd Wrong (@dorn_bruce) October 20, 2021

It is clear that the State Department in the Biden administration has different priorities but it should come as no surprise.