Pronoun Pushback: Jonathan Chait Plays the 'Basic Decency' Card on J.K. Rowling

As Twitchy readers know, J.K. Rowling is once again under fire for 'comparing' a man to a man because he is a man (who claims he is a woman).

This prompted a later post by Rowling where she addressed the claim that she, a slight 5-foot 4-inch 58-year-old woman, was bullying a beefy British football manager who identifies himself as 'Lucy Clark'.

Calling a man a man is not 'bullying' or 'punching down.' Crossdressing straight men are currently one of the most pandered-to demographics in existence, and women are under no obligation to applaud the people caricaturing us.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 12, 2024

This is not difficult. If you want to call a thing something that it's not, you have that right. You do not have the right to demand that everyone else join your delusion.

But enough about the British calling soccer 'football'.

Lucy Clark is a grown man. He can live however he chooses whether we agree with his choices or not, but expecting everyone to call him a woman? No.

Judge for yourself:

“𝘞𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘩, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴”

Hear from Lucy following last night’s defeat against Dorking Wanderers

Full interview 👇

🎥 https://t.co/UxIJkhlccp #SuttonUtdWomen | @SUFCTV pic.twitter.com/id0RYT7S6F
— Sutton United Women F.C. (@SuttonUtdWomen) April 26, 2024

Every person throughout all of human history until about 10 years ago would agree that Clark is a man.

The vast majority of those who argue otherwise still know he's a man, but it has become socially fashionable to pretend it's not so.

That's when Jonathan Chait entered the chat to deploy the 'decency' torpedo.

Just call people what they want to be called. It’s basic decency.
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) May 12, 2024

The 'decency' argument is the idea that it doesn't harm you in any way to just call someone what they want to be called, but is that true?

Does this apply to any other demographic, Landon? Do I get to be black if I like Motown and fancy myself in cornrows? What if I claim the authentic me has always been black and that you're being racist to me? Would that be OK, or would you find it ludicrous and deeply offensive?
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 12, 2024

It is, of course, ludicrous. We'd go so far as to say it is indecent.

I don't see any value in the analogy, since my point solely concerned how to address people, and we don't address people differently by their race.
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) May 12, 2024

For his part, Chait's argument is that he was only referring to how people want to be addressed by others.

Asking to be called a certain name (a proper noun) is wholly different than asking to be called by certain pronouns.

If you change your name to Edward, Flipper, Bobo, or Jonathan Chait that is your personal identification of who you are and most people will refer to you by that name (even if you're a man using a woman's name - see Caitlyn Jenner).

Pronouns describe the kind of person you are, and nobody has the right to demand that others deny reality or compromise their morals. In fact, making such demands, backed by a charge of being 'indecent' if you don't comply is the bullying tactic of the radical transgender movement.

That is the entire point of the pronoun movement. They're not demanding that you call a guy 'Lucy'. They're demanding that you call a man a woman. They're demanding the surrender of your ideals.

I will not call a man a woman.
I will not give up my spaces, sports, and experiences to a man.

Sorry, not sorry.
— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) May 12, 2024

Just stop trying to compel people's speech and demanding they lie about what their senses tell them. It's basic decency.
— Billy Bragg (@Serena_Partrick) May 12, 2024

Call me the King of England 🙄👑
— andypandy 🍀🍀🥚 (@andymarie23) May 12, 2024

Hey, that was our line! There was a general disagreement with Chait's position that people should just go along to get along under the banner of decency.

We sort of love Jonathan Chait, by the way … it's sort of that weird Twitter/X 'love your enemies' kind of thing. He once called us at Twitchy a 'conservative rage-curator', which we thought was pretty hilarious and awesome. He did so while lumping us in with Michael Tracey, who recently said we were systematically, fanatically, 'pro-Israel', and we thought that was pretty great too.

Or how about everyone do whatever they want, and don't get offended about what some rando calls you?

Free speech means the ability to be an asshole. If these left wing protests of the last few months has shown us anything...it showed us that.
— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D. (@neoavatara) May 12, 2024

Free speech also means the ability to state basic biological facts, even if it makes us the focus of left-wing rage.

We do curate our rage, by the way, with thought, debate, and humor. It's a much better approach than taking hammers to the Magna Carta, blocking the freeway with your bodies, harassing Jews on campus, or disrupting graduation ceremonies like mega-babies. Frankly, the Left could use more rage-curators.

Fine. I’d like to be called Jonathan Chait today, because I’m feeling intellectually lazy, and don’t feel like using logic. https://t.co/gKwAERpZ42
— Deebs (@DeebsFLA) May 12, 2024

Come on now! It's like all of you live inside our brains.

What if Jonathan Chait Deebs wanted to withdraw some cash from the ATM as the real Jonathan Chait? Does decency demand that Chait enter his PIN?

Absurd logic. Imagine if “self-ID” becomes the norm for everyone. What would stop any unscrupulous person from “identifying” as a lawyer, surgeon, police officer, etc and scamming / endangering others under the guise of “I’m just living my truth!” https://t.co/CgEdEHIQu9
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) May 12, 2024

People aren't buying the claim that the demand to use certain (wrong) gender pronouns and identities is a small thing.

Again, there's a dangerous difference between asking that people address you as 'Dr. Jill' and demanding they agree that you are a doctor.

A functioning society needs a basic agreement how to refer to things and categories. Calling someone by their name is one thing; avoiding basic communication because a Sir thinks of himself as a Mam, is absurd, never ending, and leads to strife. https://t.co/eC03PzSv9w
— Yossi Gestetner (@YossiGestetner) May 12, 2024

What about basic decency though? Isn't it just being polite?

If someone, for example, identifies as an ER doctor, shouldn't we just agree out of basic decency? What harm could come from that …