I see this at my $megagorp job. The top brass don't do that much written communication, but when they do they are absolutely shooting from the hip. It's not as bad as Epstein but it's a strong "I've already started reading the next email while I'm typing this one" vibes.
FWIW I don't have a problem with it at all. As the article mentioned there's an aspect of power politics (I'm important enough not to have to worry about formatting). But to me instead of <I wish elites weren't so callous with text> I feel <everyone should feel empowered to write like that> (again, maybe not quite to the level of Epstein, but e.g. capitalisation is just unimportant. Signing off emails with "best wishes" is not a good use of anyone's 500 milliseconds).
>capitalisation is just unimportant. Signing off emails with "best wishes" is not a good use of anyone's 500 milliseconds
Yet I'm on Twitter reading "Prison for attempted murderer enablers like this clown" by the world's richest man who is tweeting all day. My guess is that it has just become a way of status signalling more than anything else.
Natural languages have inherent ambiguity. That includes your grammar with capitalization, any kind of standard english grammar of which there are dozens
Which person does Jack refer to? What if you have 2 friends named Jack? Does "horse" refer to a member of a class of animal or something else? Sorry but your examples are full of indecipherable nonsense. But I guess if you just pretend that everything you write is well understood then there is no problem.
Capitalization slightly narrows a search space that is already narrow, since that is it's only functional use it should only be used when appropriate. If every rule was applied at every instance your writing would both become indecipherable and you'd subtly change your intended meaning. Better to be misunderstood by some than to water down your message and add class/prestige/formality/distance all of which are inappropriate in most writing.
I guess your teacher gave you that example, but you ABSOLUTELY FAILED to understand the meaning of their lesson.
This is perhaps the silliest possible response I could imagine to what is intended to be an amusing example and non-illustrative of the more common real-world confusions.
Which are real.
> I guess your teacher gave you that example, but you ABSOLUTELY FAILED to understand the meaning of their lesson.
Wow, you sure are defensive about the notion that communications protocols are most useful when they are consistent and predictable. You may think you've nailed me as an illiterate, but I conclude that you've nailed yourself as a tilter at windmills.
Contrived examples are fun but have nothing to do with the actual reasons people demand "correct" writing. These confusions do not happen in real life.
The reason people actually care is only ever to do with in-group signalling or power politics.
FWIW I don't have a problem with it at all. As the article mentioned there's an aspect of power politics (I'm important enough not to have to worry about formatting). But to me instead of <I wish elites weren't so callous with text> I feel <everyone should feel empowered to write like that> (again, maybe not quite to the level of Epstein, but e.g. capitalisation is just unimportant. Signing off emails with "best wishes" is not a good use of anyone's 500 milliseconds).