In times of changing writing habits, orthography, as an emotional asset and means of distinction, continues to be highly valued. In this paper, we present an explorative diachronic journey through 30 years of spelling discourse – from the reform to generative AI – and show that the positionings towards orthography remain relatively constant. Whereas the intensity of the discourse varies over time, depending on particular discursive events, both the actors and topoi turn out to be recurrent.