I saw some copy an agency had pitched to a university recently. I’ll paraphrase it so I’m not infringing anyone’s copyright:

Less footballers than at other unis.

I’m just using footballers here as being a sort of general antithesis of academics. But the noun is not the point. It’s the preceding enumerator.

There seems to be a growing movement among English speakers, many of whom I think would know better, to banish the word fewer from the language.

What I can’t figure out is why.

It is, after all, a very simple word. It’s not foreign-sounding; it comes from Old English. It has only five letters: one more than less. So why the reluctance to use it in its proper sense?

Okay, so some people are confused by the concept that you’re supposed to use less when referring to a single thing and fewer when referring to multiple things. But I’m sure a lot of other people of average intelligence aren’t confused. And even if people think fewer is just a straight synonym for less, they at least have an idea of what it means, and therefore would be able to understand the slogan in question.

People who do know the difference are going to look at the above and note the obvious error. The fact that this was for a university makes it, in my mind, inexcusable.

I’m going to make a callous and sweeping statement, in order to make my point, by saying that only stupid people wouldn’t know what fewer means.

Give your readers some credit. If you treat them as though they’re stupid, they won’t read. And the only readers you’ll be left with are the stupid ones.