It is not an attitude that I do like The Comet, I am not a fan of people who put down others in such a way. You appear to measure intelligence based on a person's grasp of language, which I find in itself is quite short sighted. What you're talking about boils down to the old linguistic arguments of the prescriptive approach versus the descriptive approach. All one has to do is look at the history of the English language to see firstly how it got to where it is today and how standardisation and trying to create "proper" English has fared. Before the printing press we did not have a 'standard', it was only once we could mass produce writing in the way that we can now that a real attempt at standardisation had occurred, but it was biased to a certain dialect and a deal of the history includes snobbery toward other regions in the UK, but the reality of it is that nobody can truly control how language evolves, develops and how people use it. That is not to say anybody is stupid, I love my colloquialisms, a lot of the way I speak comes from where I've grown up and I've picked up some from the 3 years I lived in Derby, some of it I am corrupted from TV, so I do not speak like Mr Darcy, I sound as common as much. My written English can sometimes reflect that and thus "improper" language slips through and I make mistakes as any human might. The skill I find is the ability to correct those mistakes, however, in many situations I do not feel that it is necessary to do so, so long as what I have written has been correctly understood without much effort from the person interpreting it. So the "would've" and the "would of" would not bother me, at least in the majority of situations, nor would I think the person dumb and lazy, I've known intelligent people to make such errors. Though I do recall once being told off for using "irregardless" as being improper use of English, but I pointed out to them that it's in the Oxford dictionary and showed them where. That is one example of language change. I sometimes slip in "irregardless" if I feel somebody is being unfair as a grammar Nazi, because I know they will take the bait. The Oxford dictionary takes the descriptive approach by looking at what language is in common use. Which makes sense, because if they didn't the dictionary would never get new words, hell, we'd probably still be using Samuel Johnson's dictionary.
But I don't feel we should treat people as dumb or lazy for their inadequacies, because as The Slayer has rightfully said, you will have your own. I have never treated you poorly or considered you stupid for history on the forums, when one might argue that all one has to do is read the AUP and avoid doing the things they should, or proof read their post before making it and making sure it doesn't tick the wrong boxes, because that's what I've done and found it served me well over the years, but that doesn't mean because somebody doesn't understand or struggles or fails to do so is lazy or dumb. I know I have my own flaws and that is why I am humble about them, but I don't think they make me stupid. One of my flaws is related to language, I have what I've nicknamed a "bad autocorrect" brain, because what I sometimes end up writing is different to what I intended, it can create some interesting and funny results, but sometimes it means what I write is grammatically incorrect, sometimes I'll proofread and edit, other times I don't think it matters. It's not laziness or stupidity.
It annoys me too, because I have a friend has become very self conscious about her English, she roleplays with us, but I think has been disheartened because of how she writes English, she was treated as dumb by her teacher for not getting it right and from what I understand of it, people still do and I think it's unfair, she wasn't taught properly and is an intelligent person, she also speaks English as a second language, also a friendly and decent person and I don't think should be made to feel bad because they can't get it right. I feel the same for people with dyslexia. But my group doesn't make people feel bad for how their use their language in roleplay or tell them to get it right. Now, I can understand the want to help people get their English right, but there's a time and place for it and generally people who do correct people's language aren't typically trying to help them, they are typically trying to make them feel bad about their language or do it in such a way that it puts them down. Which is not cool. But if a person is okay with it, then fine, but is generally good communication to make sure they don't mind in the first place. Me? I do it to joke with people, so I make sure I am confident they'll take it as a joke.
I also feel if those supporting a "proper" English truly had their way, we would remove the world's rich and wonderful dialects, of the great and fun colloquialisms, of many things that make speaking language interesting. We wouldn't have cockney, we wouldn't have Geordie, we wouldn't have West Country,we wouldn't have Scouse (think of the poor dung beetles in Conkey's Bad Fur Day, it wouldn't be as half as entertaining in standard English) we would have pirate speak, these were all born out of people not speaking or writing 'proper' English.
Don't get me wrong, I can see the need for a standard English, I see places where it is beneficial, but I do not believe it should be one or the other, but standard English is good practice and has its places where it's suited and should not be used to measure a person's intelligence nor should be a requirement of every human being who wishes to speak it or else to forever be considered lazy and dumb. I'm sorry, but I favour the green grocer who is good at his job as opposed to the one who knows where to stick an apostrophe. And good English doesn't always get you very far, refer to my comment about me and my senior agent, he is practically illiterate, but knows enough to do his job and is senior to me without having many GCSE's, there's me with a degree related to language, beneath him in a dead end job I don't like. My emails to customer may be spectacular, but I am not really using my degree. I'm £30k in debt and did really well in university, he went to work as soon as he left school and is in a better paid job than me doing what he's good at, he spent his time focused on something else, which obviously worked for him and he's content. My amazing grasp of the English language isn't doing me many favours in life.
I think it should be taught and taught well, but I am not going to be a grammar Nazi or put people down because their apostrophe is in the wrong place. And at the end of the day, language is the tool we use to communicate with each other, if we are capable of doing so effectively, then it is serving it's purpose.
