{"id":22,"date":"2026-01-24T13:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T13:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/?p=22"},"modified":"2026-01-24T14:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T14:15:15","slug":"who-is-they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/?p=22","title":{"rendered":"Who is &#8220;They&#8221;?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Angry-speech-and-an-agitated-crowd-1024x683.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-24\" srcset=\"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Angry-speech-and-an-agitated-crowd-1024x683.png 1024w, https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Angry-speech-and-an-agitated-crowd-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Angry-speech-and-an-agitated-crowd-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Angry-speech-and-an-agitated-crowd.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In most usage, they plural affords the same convenience as the other pronoun groups &#8211; shorthand for a known group after already identified. \u201cThe Jeffersons went on vacation. They saw the Grand Canyon and flew into Las Vegas. They said it was the trip of a lifetime!\u201d No issues here, sounds like fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But what happens when \u201cthey\u201d is unspecified? In a society, there are many groups, and different groups can refer to each other as \u201cthey\u201d without issue provided the reference is clear.&nbsp; But the ambiguous they? Without specifics, the audience might be assuming references to wildly different groups under the same banner &#8211; it becomes an ink blot test. It can be any group you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this way, \u201cthey\u201d is inflammatory, it is incendiary, it is divisive, and it is subtle<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Politicians in particular utilize they tactically in stump speeches to build alignment in the abstract when the specifics might be too inconvenient. \u201cThey\u2019re all criminals\u201d could mean ex-convicts to one audience member, all people of a race to another. And the speaker is fine with the unspoken confusion so long as both heads nod and eventually donate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In most usage, they plural affords the same convenience as the other pronoun groups &#8211; shorthand for a known group after already identified. \u201cThe Jeffersons went on vacation. They saw the Grand Canyon and flew into Las Vegas. They said it was the trip of a lifetime!\u201d No issues here, sounds like fun. But what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30,"href":"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/30"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perniciousthey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}