Recent content by Treedbear

Why not? Provide a counter argument.

As true as all that may be it doesn't refute my point that if I only exist as part of my brain then all decisions I make are made by my brain. That is, they are the direct result of processes carried out by my brain. The decisions I make are necessarily the direct result of those very processes.

I only exist within my brain. Therefore I'm part of my brain. If my brain ceases to exist I cease to exist. Therefore any decisions I make are made by my brain. I don't know how much more meaning you hope to contrive. Just because it's being referred to as "my" brain doesn't mean I'm separate...

They just refuse to recognize that the Fourth of July (also known as Independence Day) was never meant to celebrate the independence of black people.

Yeah but it stands as the end of the very worst part of our nation's history. From what I've been hearing it's always been special to the descendants of slaves. Referring to it as just a specific form of slavery minimizes how bad actual slavery was. And celebrating the day it was invalidated...

Happy Juneteenth one and all! Let's celebrate the fulfilment of our Independence as a nation. (It's just 156 years late.)

Back in post #14 I wrote:

I've never seen or heard it used. Can you reference something for me?

How about the possibility of having neither. Or having some degree of both that are non-functioning.

Yeah I already did. Assuming we are going to keep using "him" and "her", and based on my explanation for why I believe singular "they" is improper grammar. But if wanted to we could eliminate him, her, and they and just refer to everyone as "the person" or "the persons".

According to Worldometers website the world population was increasing at a rate of 1.46% in 1994. In 2020 the rate had declined to 1.05% and the population was 7,794,798,739. The approximate yearly change in the rate has been a very steady -.02% over that period. Therefore we might assume it...

I'll accept that as true, since it's well beyond my ability to know for sure. Nevertheless, I still see the need for a third category pronoun. That is unless we decide to eliminate gender pronouns entirely. But that's not going to happen. (IanSYK's experiences in the North of England...

Are you certain that there is no in-between or intersex?

^^^ That. Although I will acknowledge that since biologically non-binary persons do actually exist that there's reason enough to come up with a workable solution. If someone simply wants to identify as such it's a different issue. Actually there's a whole lot of issues involved. But resolving...

In my opinion the only correct way to use they is as a way to refer to a group as a whole. What is referred to as the singular form of they is correctly used only to indicate the existence of two or more subgroups. Such as when a group is of mixed gender and so him or her is not appropriate...