The Intercept article is about activists working in progressive political organizations, not about whether people who have particular pronouns are somehow corrosive to organizational goals. Having clearly-stated preferences for how you're addressed isn't activism. It is, in fact, basic nuts-and-bolts professionalism; voicing a negative reaction to such a preference is in fact more akin to activism.

> Having clearly-stated preferences for how you're addressed isn't activism.

To "address" means to speak directly to. The pronouns people declare aren't about how they're addressed, but rather about how they're referred to in the third person by others.

For example, suppose you've declared your pronouns to be he/him. I wouldn't use those pronouns when speaking to you. I would just use "you". The pronouns you declared become relevant when I refer to you while talking to others.

That's a distinction I didn't make because I don't care about it and it isn't relevant to the point I made. If a colleague with a doctorate wishes to be referred to as "doctor", it is unprofessional to choose to refer to them otherwise. Further, knowingly and deliberately using an undesired form of address for them is trolling; it's the exact opposite of professionalism.

None of this is news to Kraken, whose CEO helped maintain a "more troll-ish than 4chan" group on their Slack. Professionalism simply isn't one of their company values.

At any rate: my point remains --- there's no apparent overlap between Kraken, where unprofessionalism and cultural activism is coming from management, not from activist employees, and progressive organizations, which is what the Intercept article is talking about.

> If a colleague with a doctorate wishes to be referred to as "doctor", it is unprofessional to choose to refer to them otherwise

I'd suggest that is weird and unprofessional of them to want. Seems like a weird power play thing in a way gender pronouns don't

Do you know a lot of doctors, or have you worked in companies connected directly with academia? It's a thing.

I've worked with academics directly on a couple of projects, none of them insisted on being called doctor. They introduced themselves by their first names... Maybe it's a cultural thing but in Australia (where I live) it is really weird to call anyone without an MD "doctor" when addressing them