That such foolishness is entertained among the presumably elite echelons of society is due to what I call imperial privilege: the horizons of American culture and thought are so endless, an imperial inhabitant need never seriously reckon with a truly different worldview.
The Romans didn't seem to understand much about the Gauls they conquered. Nor did the English, Spanish, and French imperialists more recently. That's the very definition of an imperial culture: your tribe seems to you the reference frame for the entire universe.
What's ironic about the Latinx thing is that the same movement that pushes it is presumably in this self-abnegating, hyper-tolerant mode of diversity maximization, while subconsciously in an attitude of absolute imperial arrogance as to who defines the boxes.
I mean, think about it: Hispanic culture, in this worldview, is not a thing in itself but merely the canvas on which to project Anglo-American neuroses. Spanish (like most languages) has a gendered grammar? Well, that's got to go, sorry, we've got to destroy Spanish to save it.
Put simply: the people who use terms like 'Latinx' non-ironically, are precisely the people that if you parachuted them into Buenos Aires or Mexico City or Madrid, would be utterly incapable of navigating those cultures as locals do. They'd be the most ugly Americans ever.
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