MSNBC.com | Fastidious Spelling Snobs Pushed Over The Edge
… while blunders and bloopers have ever exasperated the spelling snobs and grammar grunions of the world, our recent woes — housing foreclosures, massive layoffs, rising debt and war — may be ratcheting up the pressure some feel to seize control of something (anything!), even if it’s just a properly placed comma.
That’s interesting. If anything, this troubling time has made me, up and coming colonel in the Army Of Spelling & Grammar Nazis, lower my lofty expectations of people. Spelling a word correctly is the least of your problems when you’re trying to keep a job, pay bills and feed the family.
Yet, the next time I point out blatant misuse of the English language, a nice excuse is at hand: “The recession made me do it.”
I think recession-related stress is causing me to really hate this kind of “trend journalism.” Take another look–the story contains no actual research, just a bunch of random assertions from it’s author and then quotes from “experts” to back it up. This is why journalism is dying. Or maybe it’s already dead.
The thing about grammar nazis is they are always going to suffer. Obviously the person screwing it up doesn’t care.
What’s worse, the Nazi is always trying to catch up. They are perpetually behind the curve. While they are busy trying to convince people about “irregardless,” the dictionaries are busy legitimizing it by making it a word.
The people dictate to the language, the language does not dictate to them. That’s what the nazis will never grasp. It’s also why “chill” means “to relax.” It’s also why we’ve been getting rid of that extra comma in a three item list.