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marmar

(80,504 posts)
Mon Jul 6, 2026, 09:52 AM Monday

Let's Fix America With Grammar


Let’s Fix America With Grammar
In the MAGAsphere, sloppy language leads to foolish thoughts, and much worse.

Kirk Swearingen


(Medium) This week, a niece messaged me about a sentence in a children’s book. She sent a photo that showed a whimsical drawing of a pink dog above the line “I wish my dog were pink.”

She asked if that should have been “I wish my dog was pink.”

I replied that the subjunctive mood in English is little understood and pretty much gone now — given that the language follows speech rather than writing — and noted, jokingly, that I wish more Americans were better educated.

My quip naturally made me recall Donald Trump’s 2015 campaign comment about how he loves the poorly educated.

Trump loves the poorly educated because he can rely on them to not understand civics and to fall for his ceaseless lies and grifting. He is smugly confident that they will also look past his many, many deficiencies as a president and a human being. Did he not brag that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters? ...................(more)

https://kirkswearingen.medium.com/lets-fix-america-with-grammar-6667ea6c99b3




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Let's Fix America With Grammar (Original Post) marmar Monday OP
It's hopeless. A lawyer and vocal Democratic activist I admire Croney Monday #1
I suspect most people now write like they speak and hear people around them speak. mwmisses4289 Monday #2
What America need's i's more apo'strophe's. cloudbase Monday #3

Croney

(5,037 posts)
1. It's hopeless. A lawyer and vocal Democratic activist I admire
Mon Jul 6, 2026, 10:04 AM
Monday

wrote on her FB page, "Come with B. and I to the meeting" and I sighed in disappointment.

mwmisses4289

(5,309 posts)
2. I suspect most people now write like they speak and hear people around them speak.
Mon Jul 6, 2026, 10:23 AM
Monday

Most writing is formal, and is not the way most people speak.
Also, for most of us, grammar sucks big time. Why learn something when for every rule there is an exception? Yes, I understand why there are exceptions to the rules, but it makes it difficult to master English when one thinks they have mastered a rule, only to discover one hasn't because of the exceptions!

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