That's quite an admission. Following the crowd instead of doing what you know is right is called selling out. What's right is what's right no matter how many others are doing what's wrong. Are you sure you're are not Arlen Specter trolling here? It's exactly the same.
“That’s quite an admission. Following the crowd instead of doing what you know is right is called selling out...Are you sure you’re are not Arlen Specter trolling here? It’s exactly the same.”
Wow, that’s an incredible leap. It’s just the way language works: most words you learn through interaction with other people. And when you hear “statist” pronounced a certain way, which happens to technically be wrong, it’s natural to pronounce it that way. Most people don’t run to the OED every time they hear or read a new word.
Anyway, it’s not as if I know in my heart of hearts that prouncing it one way is right, and proceed to sacrifice right for convenience. Only recently did I ever bother to look the word up and see how it’s officially pronounced. Like I said, it stood to reason that the “a” was long, considering the root word. But I heard it the other way so often, I assumed it was correct. It’s not the most significant mistake of my life. I knew what the definition was before the dictionary told me, and that’s the most important thing.