It’d be one thing if this admin said, ‘because this is a hard line to draw, we’re not going to, just roll with it.’ But no: some extreme cases are promoted as obvious and unquestionable, to include emojis as pronouns, and - literally and unironically - “I sexually identify as an attack helicopter.” That is among this admin’s chosen positive examples.

It’d be one thing if questioning this do-it-or-else policy was limited to meta threads. But no: this is an admin thread, in their meta community, specifically about how this rule is contentious. It is not the first such thread. It is not even the first such thread specifically about a user everyone agrees is kind of a douche. Previously, the user in charge of Liberty Hub was removed and punished for not capitalizing some known dingus’s pronouns, in the ban message.

It’d be one thing if any of this was limited, in any way. But no: it’s every community, forever.

For responses walking on eggshells, trying to convey - maybe there’s a reason this remains an issue. Maybe gender being a spectrum and a construct doesn’t get everyone on-board with erasing comments for not calling someone a unicorn. Again: actual example, presented without irony.

Being told you’re not allowed to address someone as “you” is a big fuckin’ ask, in English. Being told you’re not allowed to treat someone as human is just bewildering. But even that, you could get away with pushing, if your push was not straight off a cliff.

ShitJustWorks feels like the only instance that learned anything from reddit. Short bans change people’s behavior. Long bans change people’s… usernames.