BENIGHTED PEOPLE BRING OUT THE WORST IN ME

In a recent posting in a Facebook "chat room", I used the word "benighted";  a person responded that my using a word meaning to make someone a knight was hardly the correct word to use.

Although taken aback, I thought to myself, "Doesn't he see there is no K in there?"  I did not attack the person but merely answered with the definition of "benighted":  

adjective 
in a state of pitiable or contemptible or moral ignorance, typically owing to a lack of opportunity.  Example:  "They saw themselves as bringers of culture to poor benighted people." 

I was attacked left and right (in reality, I think most of the people from this site are from the RIGHT) and was accused by one of using "$3.00 words" (and there I thought benighted was a $2.00 word!).

When I confronted another man about posting lies about a person, he responded that he'd heard the stuff from other people. I replied that he should not use second-hand information and used a quote from Churchill: "They say so is half a lie.";   he then wrote that Churchill meant the use of "heresay". When I responded with, "Did you mean to use HEARSAY or HERESY?",  I was met with ad hominem comments.   Of course. I did know that the man meant "HEARSAY" rather than his misspelled "HERESAY",  but I didn't appreciate his implying that I did not know the meaning of the Churchill quote.

OK, I admit that I was petty, but benighted people do bring out the worst in me!