Friends are Electric

I can think of three main reasons why someone would care passionatly about spelling, and none are flattering.

The first relates to bitterness. I can imagine someone caring passionatly about spelling if they were forced to learn to spell perfectly from a very young age. These people would be bitter about all this wasted time, and take out the angstiness they feel on the world at large by always taking the time to point out every spelling mistake they see.

The second is a serious lack in pattern matching ability. If you are so handy capped, you may be unable to understand the meaning of a word if it is not exactly spelled out. In some cases, this is a legitimate worry, for instance form and from. The difference in stratigraphy and stratgiraphy, however, is slight. Anyone being a stickler in the later case is probably just an asshole.

The third and final reason I can think of why anyone would care passionately about spelling is a superiority complex. You correct spelling because it gives you something by which you feel you can legitimately place yourself above other people. In this case you are an asshole.

Now, before anyone tells me that correcting spelling comes from a legitimate desire to protect the english language, or even from love of it, I’ll point out that if you truly cared you would cease preventing its natural progression. I would also inquire about your slang usage, and whether you use the original spellings as layed out by the original dictionaries. The dictionary spellings reflect common usage today, which has often changed over the years. The original was written out before the majority were literate, and thus reflects closer how whoever wrote it down felt it should be spelled. I understand that those who care will continue to care and force their ridiculous nitpick on the word as a whole, and feel as though any transgression is the greatest crime imaginable (except of course suggesting that they are misguided), but for all of us who don’t care or who feel hostile towards their tyrannical behaviour, I’m with you. I’ve got your back.