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Comment by kevingadd | Hacker News Reader

This seems like something a competent editor would have removed from the post before it went up:

"We could simply dismiss this Nestle boycott as the wibblings of a bunch of hypersensitive hippies. Which is pretty much how I view it myself for whatever little my personal opinion is worth."

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Why? It's an opinion piece. Thus, it expresses the opinions of the author. You can see more, in a similar style, on their blog: http://timworstall.com/

Just wondering, why do you use 'their' when it's quite obvious that it's a man?

Singular their has a long established use.

(http://crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/austheir.html)

Going by that page, AndrewDucker's usage of the singular their is incorrect.

Probably for the same reason you use 'it' when it's quite obvious he's a 'he', it's a more convenient and more colloquial way of phrasing something.

*EDIT: for tone & clarity

Not sure what you mean, referring to a person as 'it' is almost universally offensive, at least in the US.

Even when referring to a child of unknown gender? Or a fetus? In Dutch, those are acceptable uses for it (or actually "het").

The edit at the bottom of the post that was added in an attempt to make the article 'balanced' after Nestle's complaints makes it obvious that it is not just an opinion piece...

Overall this is a rather poorly written article, with little or no meaningful information in it.

I think the odds that this Nestle boycott (that I've never heard of or noticed before) would transfer to Android KitKat devices are pretty slim. And even if it did, I think it would be barely noticeable in the sales of Android devices.

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