For the record I was posting in support of inclusive language, but pointing out that context and convention matter.

They seem to have even scrubbed my comment from their instance, lol.

    • xor@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      dude is masculine in every definition i’ve found (looked it up) except for a city slicker new to a ranch…
      i’ve always known it to be gender neutral… but i have a female friend that gets offended every time someone calls her that.
      but the fact that it keeps happening means that it’s gender neutral to all of those people too (she’s a fairly feminine female).
      that said, it’s best to just call people terms that they are comfortable with, not ones that you’re comfortable calling them.
      personally, i find calling a single person they/them a little obtuse, but it’s not really that hard. (slightly confusing when there’s a question of whether im referring to them or a group of people).

      • Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Except when it comes to cultural/generational uses of words. Every generation has words they use in a altered way. Dude was one such word when I was young. It was used by my generation in a way that didn’t exactly match the definition. Just like all the other generations use words out context with their written definitions. Its why I laugh when the younger generations get mad because they think they invented the concept.

        • xor@lemm.ee
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          23 hours ago

          yeah, it’s almost as if language is an evolving thing….
          but fuck that noise, i only accept definitions from the 1876 edition of Merrium-Webster… all other usages are wrong.
          (i do seriously had when the nounify a verb like “cringe” or making “sus” mean anything at all bad…