by Simon O'Connor

I am beginning to share some impressions of my recent trip to Israel and the Gaza border. I’ve done a few interviews and shared a couple of photos on social media (I will link to them at the end). There is so much to write about and as I have noted to several people, I am still processing everything so it may take me a few weeks to get everything clear enough in my mind to then turn into written words.

As I have shared some images and impressions, I am aware of what I call the ‘pronoun class’ reacting. The pronoun class are those people you come across who get very upset if you don’t use pronouns in your email signature. They are the ones who insist you must conform to their whim and bow down to their ideology. Pronoun use is your public affirmation of faith in the absurdity of gender ideology or, at the very least, an unwillingness to stand up against it.

Yet, when a family of civilians were executed in the car below – the driver being shot first through the windshield as you can clearly observe – the response is silence. In fact, the response by the pronoun class is often much worse, for excuses are given to justify the violence. More often than not, the pronoun class side with the killers or as one public academic in New Zealand noted the other day, saying “they deserved it”.

You see, the pronoun class usually get the proportionality of their responses to situations completely the wrong way around. Use the wrong pronoun – they’ll destroy your career but when terrorists execute civilians in their car, they will celebrate and make excuses.

This is just one picture. There are far worse, but unlike pronouns which are just a flight of fancy, the devastation of October 7th is verifiable and real. It is also confronting which perhaps begins to explain the psychology in play for the pronoun class – unable to confront life’s realities, they retreat to make believe.

Another quick observation from recent days engaging with the pronoun class. It turns out all these people hiding behind their comfort and keyboards are actually conflict experts, historians, and theologians. It’s remarkable. Who knew we had such talent, though strangely only a talent that appears when discussing Israel. They seem to be unable to make any comment about Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen or even the recent Islamic terrorist attack in Kashmir. Perhaps they are too busy brushing up on their pronouns?

One of the houses in Kibbutz Nir Oz; this is the aftermath of grenades being thrown into the home. The occupants were killed.

Originally published on OnPointNZ.