It's fine to use asterisks, I promise

 You know how there's this discussion in English speaking countries about using 'they' as a singular pronoun? Well, something similarly stupid has been happening in Germany. We don't really have gender neutral pronouns, so people have started using an asterisk to denote that. For example: Bäcker*innen. Now, if you're a normal person, that seems perfectly alright, a useful addition to the language even. Buuuut... some people have started decrying it as some sort of misuse of the German language, a tactical attack against grammar! Obviously, that is very dumb. I'm going to explain why anyways. First up, saying that it's not "proper German" literally doesn't make sense. Language evolves. If enough people start using something, it's part of that language. That's how literally every word we use today came to be. There wasn't a committee anywhere declaring what each word means, someone just started using it one day and it caught on. Using asterisks for gender neutral language is here to stay, your opinion quite literally does not matter: Look at at any job posting, and you will see it (or some alternative) used. Trying to police language this way is not only a dick move, it's also incredibly dumb. Enough people have made it part of their vocabulary, so it's German now. Stop trying to fight it, you won't achieve anything. In the first place, trying to protest against adding gender neutral language of all things is incredibly dumb. Like, is it that much of a crime to at least have an alternative to the generic masculine? What did that asterisk do to hurt you?

Anyways, that's my two cents on the topic. See you next time on Kami's Corner, where I'll build a shelter for all the unused asterisks that fell victim to this stupidity.