Tom’s Rant of the Day


In an online argument/discussion, if you have to stoop to criticizing your opponent’s spelling or grammar, you’ve already lost.

The simple fact of the matter is, if you can understand what someone is saying, you don’t need to correct them. Just because someone misspells a word or two, that doesn’t make their point any less valid.

If you do try to correct them, what you are actually doing is insulting them and their intelligence. Small people do this while arguing in an attempt to make themselves appear bigger and smarter than they really are.

Web sites such as Digg are plagued with people who do this back and forth, and I always get annoyed by it.

*end rant*

Special Olympics

11 responses to “Tom’s Rant of the Day”

  1. Tom – I completely agree with the Digg analysis, thank gosh you have the ability to bury someone’s comment.

    Mark – I completely agree with the pic comment.

  2. “…Did the picture at least make you laugh?…”

    No.

    But allow me to explain. I have a young nephew who is autistic. He’s a very smart kid and he couldn’t be any more loving or sweet. There’s nothing wrong with his intelligence, he just has a tendency to get stuck in patterns. He’s been tagged inappropriately as being “retarted” by some who should know better than to use that term on a 4 year-old in front of his mother. Knowing what his mother has gone through, and seeing her cry on behalf of her son and for her son, I can honestly say that “retarted” jokes do absolutely nothing for me at all — sorry.

    Aside from all my melodrama though, the graphic just doesn’t fit here. It doesn’t skew well with the personality that this site has developed, or the culture of the agency it represents.

  3. Hopefully no one will criticize my borking of the blockquote in that last comment.

    🙂

    Smiles everyone…smiles!

    An online Pizza Hut coupon to the first who can tell where that quote is from.

  4. “Hopefully no one will criticize my borking of the blockquote in that last comment.”

    Mark – This isn’t Digg.com, so you have nothing to worry about. 🙂

  5. Well, since this isn’t Digg, would you be kind enough to fix it for me? It’s buggin’ me to no end to keep looking at it wrong and not having any power to do anything about it.

  6. Mark, I can understand why you don’t find the picture funny, and I apologize if I offended anyone…

    I’ve known and been friends with a number of autistic and/or slightly mentally handicapped people, and they were some of the most lovable people I’ve ever met. There was this one guy I knew who worked at the local Wal-Mart where I lived and he always had a huge grin and a wave for me and it always made my day.

    That said, please realize that the picture is not intended to make fun of autistic or retarded people. It’s actually just poking fun at people who argue on the internet. It essentially hints that they are “mentally handicapped” if they argue online, whether they win the argument or not. The humor is found in the delayed reaction time that it takes to figure out what is being hinted at.

    Or at least that’s my take on things…

  7. Tom: this was a terrible post. And I completely disagree with your point, well, if there was a point hiding amongst all those SPELLING ERRORS! How can you talk about complex sociological issues if your English skills aren’t up to snuff? I think I’ve made my point.

    (j/k)

  8. […] Update: This website has moved to tzappe.com. Please update your bookmarks and your feeds. I dont like to repost things, but this was on BrainFuel this afternoon: In an online argument/discussion, if you have to stoop to criticizing your opponent’s spelling or grammar, you’ve already lost. […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.