The En's and Out's of Inter and Enter

An associate of mine, of who I have about 9 years of history with recently asked me about how to spell interconnect, posing the question 'is it spelled with EN or IN?'
He then went on to complain about 'those' words. I asked 'what words?'
He said, 'those words like enter that can be spelled with an i or an e.'
I paused for a moment, knowing that this man is by no means an idiot, I meekishly stated 'one is in as inter and one is enn as enter.'
He then stated very plainly and matter of fact 'I don't hear a difference.'

At first I was dumbfounded and my first reaction was to think ill of his intellect, ruminating on how that kind of idiocy was the source of most of his problems, and possibly to blame for the problems of the world.

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I have to digress for a moment here and state that those types of thoughts about ANYONE liked, loved or hated are based in a meme that has no power to uplift people or bring them together. That thought is the noticing that something is out of place and you can react against it and make more contrast or you can recognize it for what it is and decide to make the situation better, because if you don't... who will.

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Later on, I realized that a very large portion of our negative interactions that I thought were due to things he simply couldn't understand (which leads me to a feeling of superiority) were actually due to things that he couldn't even perceive. How can I expect him to know and interact with what I see as the truth of the matter when he can't perceive the simplest things that I'm basing my interaction on.

I don't know the solution to this. We can't throw these incomplete perceivers out of society... however it is folly to to allow them to have a say over us if they can't (or refuse to) see the whole picture. I know that the answer will be positive, conscientious and agreeable to all, I just can't percieve it when I hold anyone in a focus of inferiority.