Vocabulary

I've been playing with Vocabulary.com trying to improve my vocabulary. Why? Because I like words, and I enjoy learning new ones.

The following words have continued to bollix me:

inchoate
encomium
eleemosynary
prorogue
orison

While I have been expanding my vocabulary, I had to pause to think--are these words anything that I will ever have a need to use, in either my writing, or in my daily speech?

Then I went into the Vocabulary.com's Top 100 Words that other users are having problems with:

consider
minute
accord
evident
practice
intend

...and I realized that if these words are typical of what this country is having difficulties with, the American populace, taken as a whole, is ignorant and stupid.

But whose fault is it? Is it their own fault? Are they lazy? (lolwut?) Is it the fault of the schools? The fault of media that writes down to them on an eight-grade level? Or is it the fault of the authors for not learning words such as eleemosynary, and using them, thusly forcing our readers to break open their dictionaries (or, as in most cases, run out and purchase one)?

*peering down*

HEY! How'd I get up on this soapbox? -.-