Sometimes, Internet discussions can be a blast. I especially love it when some recent college grad (“recent” to me is somewhere in the last 30 years or so *heh*) gets all huffy and insulted when specific errors in their argument (fact, egregious word mis-usage, fallacy of reasoning–and the effect it has on his* argument–etc.) is pointed out to him*, is monumentally insulted, hurt and angry, instead of bucking up, growing up, getting a pair and doing his* own homework.
I really enjoy it when a po’ widdle baby interlocutor’s argument is a vehement “refutation” of an assertion I’ve made and. . . he* ends up accidentally supporting my argument, or when he* latches onto a word or term I’ve used (“Ooo! That sounds smart. I’ll use it too!”) and uses the word or term in a manner completely antithetical to its meaning, proving he* has no idea what he’s* just said.
Now, I’ll admit that some of the reasons I get such a laugh out of these kinds of things are not exactly flattering. For example, some are,
1. I DGARA about some illiterate blowhard’s tender lil feewings. Suck it up buttercup.
2. I enjoy watching metaphorical steam coming out of self-made idiots’ ears. They worked hard to earn my disrespect and they deserve it.
3. (Positive!)One in a hundred–with luck–will actually ask serious questions about how to repair the “holes and gaps, lacks and losses, absences, insipidies and the like” in their education/knowledge base.
I recall one such po’ soul from about 20 years ago. Head of the English department at a prestigious East Coast university. Emailed me privately to ask me–quite seriously–if my final comment about a post of his (well after deconstructing and pretty well demolishing it) were a reference to Faulkner. Well, except that he didn’t inflect the subjunctive mood in his question. Oh, the comment? To the effect that his argument was “sound and fury, signifying nothing” (and yes, it was in quotation marks). He quite literally (and I use the term accurately here) had NO idea that the quote was from The Scottish Play. No, seriously. The head of an English department at a prestigious East Coast university was essentially illiterate. He had never even read any of Shakespeare’s works. That qualifies an English professor as illiterate.
*sheesh*
But, since he emailed me privately, sincerely asking to be enlightened, I simply referred him to The Bard (with act, scene and line citation–Act V, Scene 5, in context, lines 20-31(? IIRC) for the soliloquy.).
Any English prof who’s unfamiliar with that soliloquy is taking his pay under false pretenses, IMO.
But those kinds of folks turn out the illiterate boobs I run across every now and then, illiterate boobs who are adamant in their obdurate fantasy that they “know stuff” and can actually reason.
I do them and the world at large a kindness when I disabuse them of their fantasies.
Wonderful! I get to have fun and perform a public service at the same time! Win-win for me! (And, in those rare cases when the illiterate boob actually wakes up and smells the coffee, a win for the illiterate boob, too.)
Yeh, I don’t do the PC “his/her, s/he” crap much. It’s stupid. And I find “their” used as a singular to be offensive, too, although I have gotten sucked into using it every now and then. Bad influences. 😉
N.B. I still only claim to be about half as literate as my grandfathers, some of my uncles and others I have known well for decades. And I enjoy having opportunities to repair my “holes and gaps. . .” etc. when they’re pointed out to me, so please feel free to note errors I make. Yeh, including typos. *sigh* But do be careful making an argument about word misuse. Some of my fav reading material is still my collection of dictionaries. 🙂