idk why people aren’t excited to use new words. we’re speaking a highly mutable and constantly evolving language. every year we get brand new words, others get new meanings, it’s all very exciting!
but then someone specifically says “i would feel more comfortable if you used this word” and THAT’S a bridge too far. it’s a kind of selfish that i just don’t understand.
Drag thinks it’s about shame. In the other thread, people were claiming that drag is bullying them into using drag’s pronouns, despite that never happening. Clearly, something is bullying them, and they attribute that to drag. Drag thinks this is what’s happening in their heads:
Respect drag’s pronouns? You’ll never be able to do that, you’re too stupid. You’re a pathetic transphobe who will never accept trans people because you’re a garbage person on the inside.
Their… Anxiety? Depression? Shame? A malformed conscience? - is attacking them because they don’t feel smart enough to get this situation. Then they lash out in an attempt to protect their ego by dismissing the source of their feeling of inferiority. It’s the same as a high schooler saying “math is stupid” because they had trouble understanding algebra. Except, this situation is higher stakes, because it threatens their ability to think of themself as a good person. So their attack against the source of shame is even more vicious.
I think drag might be right about some people being shamed by it, but I think the reasons are probably much more diverse, because there are all kinds of people.
I think in some cases it can be the fact that people often hate change, especially changing their behaviour. Learning new things is difficult for them. So they think - why does Dragon Rider want us to hurt our brains with the learning pains when using the usual pronouns works for everyone else I know? It goes against their life experience to think it might be really important to drag. They would need to be exposed to many more people like drag to start to see it as something necessary and normal.
And I think there are probably many more mechanisms in people’s minds that can make them reject drag’s chosen pronouns, I’m just not good at imagining all of the posibilities. People are very diverse.
