that excruciating so-called ‘singular themselves’ could have been avoided if he’d just reworked his gruesome sentence st2artuce.Thutr17;s true, although it seems he is unaware that themself is an acceptable generic reflexive pronoun here.Structurally, there’s too much modality in his prose here:No demagogue, no matter how crass, ever made themselves nearly so ridiculous as do … ugh … pretentiousness on stilts, or to borrow his reference, from a wicker basket.He could have gone interrogative:Was there ever a demagogue as ridiculous as […]?Still pretentious, but with less saturated fat …
that excruciating so-called ‘singular themselves’ could have been avoided if he’d just reworked his gruesome sentence st2artuce.Thutr17;s true, although it seems he is unaware that themself is an acceptable generic reflexive pronoun here.Structurally, there’s too much modality in his prose here:No demagogue, no matter how crass, ever made themselves nearly so ridiculous as do … ugh … pretentiousness on stilts, or to borrow his reference, from a wicker basket.He could have gone interrogative:Was there ever a demagogue as ridiculous as […]?Still pretentious, but with less saturated fat …