A California man was arrested and charged after making threats against Merriam-Webster, Inc. for the company’s inclusive language around gender, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Massachusetts.
Jeremy David Hanson, 34, of Rossmoor, California, was arrested and charged with one count of interstate communication of threats to commit violence, according to a press release. He has since been released ahead of an upcoming court date on April 29.
Hanson is accused of leaving threatening comments on Merriam-Webster’s website as well as sending threatening messages via the company’s “contact us” feature.
The comments left by Hanson were made in October 2021.
On Oct. 2, 2021, he used the username “@anonYmous” to comment on Merriam-Webster’s dictionary entry for the term “female.”
“It is absolutely sickening that Merriam-Webster now tells blatant lies and promotes anti-science propaganda. There is no such thing as ‘gender identity.’ The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot,” he allegedly wrote.
In a message sent to Merriam-Webster via that “contact us” function, it is alleged that Hanson wrote the company had altered “the definition of ‘female’ as part of the Left’s efforts to corrupt and degrade the English language and deny reality.”
“You [sic] headquarters should be shot up and bombed … You evil Marxists should all be killed. It would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place, leaving none of you commies alive,” he allegedly wrote.
