Why on earth would we expect an average commenter or social media personality to have flawless grammar?
I have a terrible secret I’m ashamed to share. I used to be a grammar cop.. I was one of those people who, when somebody whose opinion I disagreed with expressed that opinion with a typo in it, I would immediately disregard everything they’d said and leave a snarky comment correcting their grammar. The message my correction conveyed was: If you’re too stupid to use proper grammar, you’re not worthy of me considering your opinion.
Granted, I reserved my elitist grammar snark for people whose opinions I truly couldn’t abide. For example, when someone would scream on social media about how those dirty “libtards” would pry “there”from their cold, dead hands. I figured if they were going to be dicks about it, I may as well insult their intelligence, which, judging by their inability to recognize the need for common sense gun legislation, was lacking.
But still. It’s unlikely that harping on their grammar inconsistencies did anything to sway their opinion about gun control. In general, insulting someone’s intelligence is probably not the most effective debate tactic. It’s a way to hit below the belt, to show disdain, contempt, superiority. It’s a way to say, “I’m smarter than you are and therefore I’m right.
And what is the big deal about grammar anyway? Why should someone’s thoughts be deemed less relevant simply because they didn’t get the education necessary to perfect their grammar? And by the way, have you ever tried to seek out a grammar education without actually going to school or taking classes? If you make it to adulthood without knowing the thousands of teeny tiny rules and all their exceptions, there’s little chance of suddenly acquiring them all merely by reading a lot.
Even the best writers make mistakes, and the most esteemed books and publications have typos. Nobody’s perfect. I will probably have at least one one typo in this article. I still find typos and misplaced commas in
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