Grammar

People who cannot distinguish between good and bad language, or who regard the distinction as unimportant, are unlikely to think carefully about anything else.

— B. R. Myers

On a Facebook group dedicated to the prize-winning writer Shelby Foote (a fav of mine), a civil war broke out after I corrected someone who used "hung" to mean "executed." (If a man or woman was executed by hanging, as grammarians know, he or she was "hanged.")

Some group members backed me, but many went apoplectic over my comment, insisting grammar was irrelevant to communicating.

Facebook even banned me for 24 hours, saying "your comment didn't follow our Community Standards."

The irony of advocating sloppy grammar in a group dedicated to Shelby Foote escapes them, as, I'm afraid, do most subtleties.

B.R. Myers is right: sloppy grammar signals a sloppy thinker—or at least a poorly read one.

No, sloppy grammar doesn't prohibit communication.

But it does reflect a pitiable sort of poverty.

Grammatically Incorrect

Your blind or stupid or both.

— Trump follower

More offensive than refusing to get the vaccine or wear a mask, in my book, is refusing to learn grammar.

You can always spot a Trump follower on line: like the boss, he can barely spell and doesn't "get" contractions.

Last week, one of them replied to a comment I posted by saying, "Your blind or stupid or both."

Grammatically incorrect moral outrage is as offensive as anything on the Internet, including insults, slurs, profanities, and untruths.

The tech platforms like Facebook should cancel the accounts of anyone who can't spell can't.

Were they to do that, the nation would be a step closer to preserving democracy—not to mention my sanity.

More fundamental than being politically correct is being grammatically so.

"Change your language and you change your thoughts," futurist Karl Albrecht said.

Mark Zuckerberg, are you listening?

Serial Killer

There is no comma between the penultimate item in a list and "and"/"or," unless required to prevent ambiguity.

— Oxford University Style Guide

The serial comma—also known as the Oxford comma—is the comma often needed before the conjunction at the end of a list.

When you omit the serial comma—as Rudy has—you kill the meaning of your statement.

You might argue Rudy saved a stroke. 

But he induced a stroke among his followers, by pitting the party of Reagan, Trump and the traitors (whoever they are) against that of Lincoln.

A single comma would have been the life-saver.

While Rudy's sin of omission is exquisite, my all-time favorite remains this book-dedication by a fellow right-winger:

This book is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God.

Although you might think so, the book's author wasn't Mike Lindell. 

The author merely shared similar parentage.