So, most people he encounters deliberately do this, most people who don't also do this think that they should be, and yet he feels confident saying they're wron

So, most people he encounters deliberately do this, most people who don't also do this think that they should be, and yet he feels confident saying they're wrong. "Bold" is an understatement. It's a arbitrary convention either way, as he admits. Invoking "writers, editors, typographers, and others" means very little in the context of correspondence, personal or otherwise. I've been teaching myself Emacs and having decent success in teaching myself various shortcuts. Re-teaching myself to not put two spaces after a sentence in prose? Ha.