Thread by @dappergander

I can't say for certain in every case, but I know that spelling mistakes like these can be purposeful, and useful if structured like this.

They ultimately benefit the writer: diverting criticism from the subject at hand while not upsetting the target audience even a little.

1/

Not *everyone* will get distracted, of course, but the most popular responses will always be people harping on the spelling error.

Which means they're not engaging on the rest of the statement.

2/

Whenever the spelling error appears in the last sentence, I'm particularly suspicious because in argumentative structure, that last line is supposed to land hardest. It's the 'punchline' of the tweet. You know this subconsciously.

An error there hijacks your brain.

3/

At the same time, trust me, MTG's base does not care about your/you're. So the criticism falls flat, and in fact, counter-criticism ("you're all grammar Nazis," etc) further serves the purpose of letting the actual content of the tweet go unchallenged.

MTG knows this, too.

4/

If I edit that sentence and its spelling error out of the tweet, the whole statement lands differently. Read them both and think about how your brain processes them differently *because* of the difference.

You're not distracted by "your."

5/

So what seems like an easy dunk allows the actual subject matter of the tweet to go out to the intended audience unchallenged while too many people high-five over what a dumb dumb bad speller Marjorie Taylor Greene is.

Just endless replies of it.

6/

Controlling the conversation can be a powerful weapon. Whether or not this particular error was intentional, the conversation is nonetheless controlled. If there is a thoughtful criticism being made, none of her followers will see it because it's off in a quote tweet.

7/7

Update: this tactic continues to work very well for them

And I wake up to this: