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Why do people get so hung up about words? I’ve never understood that. When I was a kid we lived in a dozen or so places, usually in places with multiple accents, dialects, nomenclatures. I thought they all were cool. People can talk however they want, use whatever words they want, unless they are downright hurtful. You know what words are hurtful. Everyone does. Those are words wielded as weapons. But there are only a few of those. Otherwise, words are things to use pretty much how you want, provided you can be understood. And maybe not even that sometimes. I love making up words whenever I can. Just on the spot. People rarely notice. They just assume it’s in a dictionary somewhere.

Language is this amazingly flexible thing you can just totally mess with. You can be as creative as you want with it. But people are so obsessed with using only the right words, the right grammar, the right spellings. But who the hell decides what is right? It changes every generation. A few years ago alright made people crazy. Before that it was altogether. Before that it was already. Just about every alsomething was all something, and people raged and raged but they died and the two words became one word as they mouldered in the grave unable to say a word in protest.

I say talk however you want. Write however you want. Maybe even spell however you want. I say language is a living thing, not something dead and rulebound and not supposed to change ever. I think it is supposed to change always. It will change always, as it always has. I say everything your English teacher taught you was wrong.

The Elements of Style…I tossed mine in the garbage decades ago. Fuck the rules.

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