How do you spell hypocrit?

In general, I try to avoid reading the Comments section after CBC news items. They are frequented by knuckle-draggers, fact-challenged ideologues, freepers, ReformaTory Attack Parrots™© dutifully re-posting Con speaking points, sociopaths and, occasionally, a few sensible & rational human beings.

Bureaucrats may also be adding to the general confabulation by contributing so-called factual information from Harper's New©™ Government.

Nonetheless, the following comment jumped up when I glanced down from perusing a short article about the public outcry against the destruction of a small forested area in Kanata.

savant1 wrote:Posted 2010/06/06at 11:41 AM ET"Kanata North councillor Marianne Wilkinson said she has explored the area with her grandchildren and, like hundreds of others, has come to appreciate the forest trails." ---------------------- On May 26 she pushed through a Special Tax Levy against her constituents (without a vote) while claiming the taxation per household would be reduced as further new homes were constructed in Kanata. How do you spell hypocrit?

Um ... you spell hypocrite with an "e" at the end. With one word, this commenter's rhetorical flourish became a big, embarrassing FAIL.

We are all fallible. Tpyos and spelling mistakes happen in this blog too; fern hill and I will correct each other's posts when that happens. My particular bugbear: words in English that will differ from the French ones by one letter. Example: aggression and in French, agression.

But. There are occasions and opportunities when correct spelling counts. I don't believe I'm a grammar snob, but when I encounter error upon error in a blogger's text, I tend to stop reading that particular author. I tend to wonder if they're as sloppy about their information as they are about their composition.

And I loathe cutesy, deliberate mistakes such as "teh" that are used by people who unconsciously condescend, as mawkish expressions of their need to connect with hoi polloi or to be "teh" edgy.

Bonus reading: Go immediately to balbulican's brilliant post Are You A "Citizen Journalist", or Just An Asshole?



PS: Speaking of mistakes, it appears that my accidental double click or slip-up with the "enter" key caused my post to be prematurely published, and thus to show up at Progressive Bloggers before I officially released it. Oops.