In the Netherlands and Flanders, a debate on the Dutch spelling has been raging between, on the one hand, the ‘green spellers’, who follow the official ‘green spelling’, and, on the other hand, the protesting ‘white spellers’, who espouse an alternative spelling. In the present article, this debate will be approached from a socio-epistemological perspective. Using the theory of Helen Longino, we highlight how the debate between the parties has been conducted, and explain why it failed to become a fruitful debate, based on a critical discourse and by which both parties strive for objective knowledge. We also draw a few lessons for the future.