I reserve the vile habit of referring to people/personas as “it” only for a certain type of individual who attacks others based on identity whilst using identity politics as their personal shield.
This behavior is irregardless of their purported identity or orientation, beliefs-- it is me signalling staunch refusal to engage in any form of identity nuance when I have only ever seen them use identity in bad faith.
I can recall only two personas I go out of my way to refer to in this manner-- I can’t promise that I wouldn’t refer to anyone else similarly, but I hope everyday that I may never come across more who earn the distinction.
I agree, and intend to block them on my account, but I am disconcerted with their readiness to censor based on personal bias and feel that their doing so is a critical matter that should not go unignored.
Even wirh defederation as the extreme, I brought it for discussion to make clear how critical I feel it is for the fediverse to acknowledge it’s weakness to influence by bad actors embedding themselves in positions of social trust.