Forget the Funny Fonts

I decided, in this particular case, not to leave a comment on this particular thread, partially because it’s a trivial matter and, despite the fact that I have an opinion on it, there was no reason for me to put a damper on the party, to bring everybody down, and plus I’d already been active this morning on a couple of other threads, making comments that offended easily offended people, as I sometimes tend to do. I am not a mean person, but some people just make it so damned easy.
The headline was “Try This Sans Comic Trick.” I get irritated by that, by the very idea that our valuable time should be consumed in worrying about fonts, when there are important things to be said, important subjects to be debated. I’m not worried at all about fonts, and the various ways in which they can be manipulated. Before social media, I don’t think anybody was worried about fonts at all, or even aware of the concept, outside of typesetters and people who worked in advertising.
It’s similar to the one space or two after a period argument. The machine is going to decide it for you anyway, so what does it matter? I grew up leaving two, and still do, and it gets edited down to one, and I don’t care. It never, in any way, changes something I’ve said.
There is that old saying “It ain’t what you say, it’s the way that you say it” and in some rare circumstances that may be true, but I would generally hold to the opposite maxim. It’s not how you say it, it’s what you say. Letters are representations of sound, and very arbitrary ones at that. But, the words we write have meaning, and they are being posted on the internet, to last forever and ever and ever. Choose your words carefully. Bugger the font.