Are you kidding me?

I have read more of this book K.D. recommends about avoiding common mistakes, and the third suggestion is "Don't show off when you write."

I repeat: Are you kidding me? If I know words such as moronic, infecund, soporific, maladjusted, or reticulum, why shouldn't I use them? We writers, as a breed, are superior to the rest of the world's population, and some of us are even better than that. It is our right, yea, our duty to educate the ignorant masses when possible. If we cause them to put aside our writings to fetch the dictionary, then we've accomplished a modicum of our calling. If, as they pause in their reading, they ponder our extreme and incomparable knowledge, the Universe sighs in contentment. So I say again to the creator of the above "mistake" and those who believe him: are you kidding me? Why use a simple word when a long one will do?

Philistines!