Recently I was called a "grammar boy" for commenting on someone's poor writing. He hadn't just made a typo; he had screwed up half of the words he used, and of course hadn't used any punctuation, or capitals, or made anything remotely resembling a complete sentence. Besides, what he was trying to say was something inaccurate and repulsive. Ever since then I have had this song stuck in my head, with a slight alteration to the title, of course:
I ain't no glamour boy. But grammar boy? I can live with that. I don't jump on people all the time about piddly things, or at least I try not to. But if someone keeps repeating the same mistake I'll gently correct them. Maybe not so gently if they're being a jerk. Sometimes I can barely understand what someone is trying to say, their spelling and/or grammar is so bad. In those cases, I often assume that their thoughts are as jumbled as their writing. It's usually true. This guy was an ignorant, incoherent mess. We all make mistakes in our speech, writing, and thinking. Hopefully we learn from and try to fix them. I appreciate it when people point out my mistakes. I can be persuaded to change my mind. But if you can't even get your point across to me, well, if you're lucky I'll probably just ignore you.
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