Editors don't even know the difference between "lie" and "lay", or "effect" and "affect", or "lose" and "loose", or "Hear, hear!" and "Here, here!", or "except" and "accept", or "infer" and "imply", or "literally" and "figuratively" anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that language is a constantly evolving thing, but when, through sloppiness and inattention and a refusal to understand the roots of words, a pair of antonyms (e.g. "literally" and "figuratively", or "infer" and "imply") are commonly used as synonyms, I'd say we've lost something important.

Most of this is pure obliviousness. I'm always amazed at people who don't even know how to copy a word right, for example, when a printed test question says:

"What are the chief exports of Bolivia?"

And the student's handwritten answer begins, 1/4 inch below on the same goddamned piece of paper:

"The cheif exprots of Bovillila are ... "

AAAAARGH! I can understand not wanting to go find a dictionary, but ... you can't even use a resource that's right in front of your face?