Actually, this phenomenon has intrigued me since I first started reading DUmmieland, in 2001, and noticed a lot of DUmmies never use capital letters.
At first, I thought this neglect was due to ignorance {public education} or laziness (too lazy to use another finger to hit the "shift" key). But now I think not.
During the later half of the 19th century, there was a pre-DUmmie, a pre-hippie, in Germany who attracted a great deal of attention because of the variety and scope of his "causes."
One of the "causes" was for the abolition of capital letters.
The proper word (which I coined, circa 1988, never having seen it anywhere before), for adherents to this "cause" is "nagelism."
Abolishing capital letters, making all equal, fits in really good with DUmmie philosophy (a philosophy which they never practice, though; elitism and differentiation is stronger among the DUmmies than most other sociological groups, large and small) of egalitarianism.
"Abolishing capital letters, making all equal..."
equality for all letters.
I like it. :-)
I have always been under the impression that Nettiquette says using all lower case words (or to turn your phrase, "nagalising") indicated contempt for the subject or person at hand. I never capitalize the words islam, muslim, muhammed, quran etc. to show my contempt for them.
But I go back to BITNET and USENET so maybe things have changed.
AHEM PJ!
I wake up every morning get my coffee and look for my DUFU ping.....
This morning, I get up do the routine, and no PING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh the horrors!!!!
I happened across the DUFUs while scanning FR.
What is the world coming to? I almost didn't get my fix!!!!
I am hurt!
I am dejected!
I feel like an outcast!
I can't do a good DU drama queen rant :) LOL
NOTE: PJ how can you miss pinging me? I am in the first top 69 of your list....hehehehehehe
I had to share my 10th grade English class with a couple of lesbo-radical Marxist types (literally: they ran an underground newspaper called RED TIDE; one of them outed herself on TV).
Anyway, during a lesson on grammar, spelling, & punctuation, one of them complained, "What difference does it make what the rules are? Just as long as we can communicate. Why do we need all these restrictions?"
Interestingly, you may have noticed that the name "God" is now in lower case in many publications. Ditto for the pronoun "he". (Unless, of course, it's She.)
The lack of capitalization for proper nouns probably implies a lack of respect for authority, as they don't want to acknowledge anything higher than themselves. (The reason for this "gifted" club, perhaps?)
"Capitalization must be for "Norms" only.'
e.e. cummngs was one of the hot poets of the sixties and I think the leftwingers think that life without capitals is somewhat more self aware and profound.
An acquaintance of mine doesn't capitalize either, but, as he explained to someone who complained about his emails, it's too hard on his hands to mess with the shift key somehow, so he just types without caps unless he's typing something important, like a resume or something. I haven't seen his work setup, but he gets around in a wheelchair he puffs into to operate, and with some use of his arms, drives himself to work. He's always cheerful, and an inspiration to see, gently reminding me that no matter what may be happening in my own life, my silly problems are so small. Here's a man who has faced some obstacles in life...