4 ms·

Slaves were forbidden to read it was so dangerous. Nat Turner's ability to form an uprising came from learning to read and consequently preach. Frederick Doug

by yters 9y ago

Slaves were forbidden to read it was so dangerous. Nat Turner's ability to form an uprising came from learning to read and consequently preach. Frederick Douglass had to learn secretly, and what he read inspired him to escape slavery. Now, we as a society are becoming illiterate, incapable of basic reading comprehension. We are voluntarily enslaving ourselves.

ninkendo 9y ago
> Now, we as a society are becoming illiterate, incapable of basic reading comprehension. That's an extraordinary claim. Do you have evidence to back it up? Because from a cursory glance, studies seem to show the opposite: https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ourworldindata_rising-education-around-the-world-school-and-literacy.png https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ourwor...
- bigbugbag 9y ago
  Depends on the definition of literacy[1] turns out the low end (basic literacy) is getting better and the high end (full proficiency) is getting worse. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States
- thinkfurther 9y ago
  That's people attending school, not having reading comprehension -- which isn't just getting something from the text, but understanding precisely what it says and doesn't say -- or having much of an attention span. Just an cursory listen and read to the gibberish in marketing, TV, movies, on youtube, not to mention people in real life, while not showing me a trend, shows me there's lots of FUBAR accepted as normalcy. Idiocracy was optimistic I think, no way is it going to take 500 years.
  - DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
    Reading comprehension isn't the same thing as Critical Thinking. Take a look at a typical community Bible Study group: they'll definitely score high marks for reading comprehension, but (in my own biased perspective) low marks for critical analysis.
    - adrianratnapala 9y ago
      That's pretty biased.
- contingencies 9y ago
  What is going on now is partly a retreat from real literacy back to oral modes of communication and oral modes of thought (i.e. "texting" is really a transliteration of an oral utterance, not a literary form). This is a disaster. - Alan Kay (2016) ... from my fortune database @ http://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup http://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup
- anotherbrownguy 9y ago
  I like how "evidence" is required when everyone is not parroting the "facts" everyone got by watching the same "news"-cum-"comedy show" on TV.
  - DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
    I'll grant you that. I do die a tiny bit inside when shows like Last Week Tonight or The Daily Show, both of which imply that heavy research goes into their programming, will have their hosts say "Studies have shown..." but fail to give a citation. A simple, unobtrusive on-screen citation text doesn't take trouble to add, yet would significantly boost the shows' credibility - and hopefully coax the rest of the media into doing the same.
    - anotherbrownguy 9y ago
      Maybe because the studies are cherry-picked to fit their agenda?
- s_kilk 9y ago
  Not the OP, but I recall a section in Mark Fischer's book Capitalist Realism, in which he relayed an anecdote from his teaching days. According to Fischer, a large plurality of his students (in higher education) were functionally illiterate. They had gone through the usual early-ed literacy, and knew the mechanics of how to read, but in practice showed a distinct aversion to actually doing reading. When asked to read, they would complain that they couldn't, because it was "boring". They had been so consumed by spectacle that the ordinary act of reading words off a page had drifted beyond their reach.
bigbugbag 9y ago
What do you mean now we are voluntarily enslaving ourselves ? This was already happening in 1548 as pointed out in the discourse on voluntary servitude[1]. [1]: http://www.constitution.org/la_boetie/serv_vol.htm http://www.constitution.org/la_boetie/serv_vol.htm
fiblye 9y ago
People are reading more than ever thanks to the internet and literacy rates are up. The problem is whether those readers and reading things that challenge their world view rather than just affirm everything they already think.
- 6d6b73 9y ago
  Browsing through twitter or fb can't really be considered reading..
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

by yters 9y ago

ninkendo 9y ago

> Now, we as a society are becoming illiterate, incapable of basic reading comprehension. That's an extraordinary claim. Do you have evidence to back it up? Because from a cursory glance, studies seem to show the opposite: https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ourworldindata_rising-education-around-the-world-school-and-literacy.png https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ourwor...

bigbugbag 9y ago
Depends on the definition of literacy[1] turns out the low end (basic literacy) is getting better and the high end (full proficiency) is getting worse. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States
thinkfurther 9y ago
That's people attending school, not having reading comprehension -- which isn't just getting something from the text, but understanding precisely what it says and doesn't say -- or having much of an attention span. Just an cursory listen and read to the gibberish in marketing, TV, movies, on youtube, not to mention people in real life, while not showing me a trend, shows me there's lots of FUBAR accepted as normalcy. Idiocracy was optimistic I think, no way is it going to take 500 years.
- DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
  Reading comprehension isn't the same thing as Critical Thinking. Take a look at a typical community Bible Study group: they'll definitely score high marks for reading comprehension, but (in my own biased perspective) low marks for critical analysis.
  - adrianratnapala 9y ago
    That's pretty biased.
contingencies 9y ago
What is going on now is partly a retreat from real literacy back to oral modes of communication and oral modes of thought (i.e. "texting" is really a transliteration of an oral utterance, not a literary form). This is a disaster. - Alan Kay (2016) ... from my fortune database @ http://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup http://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup
anotherbrownguy 9y ago
I like how "evidence" is required when everyone is not parroting the "facts" everyone got by watching the same "news"-cum-"comedy show" on TV.
- DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
  I'll grant you that. I do die a tiny bit inside when shows like Last Week Tonight or The Daily Show, both of which imply that heavy research goes into their programming, will have their hosts say "Studies have shown..." but fail to give a citation. A simple, unobtrusive on-screen citation text doesn't take trouble to add, yet would significantly boost the shows' credibility - and hopefully coax the rest of the media into doing the same.
  - anotherbrownguy 9y ago
    Maybe because the studies are cherry-picked to fit their agenda?
s_kilk 9y ago
Not the OP, but I recall a section in Mark Fischer's book Capitalist Realism, in which he relayed an anecdote from his teaching days. According to Fischer, a large plurality of his students (in higher education) were functionally illiterate. They had gone through the usual early-ed literacy, and knew the mechanics of how to read, but in practice showed a distinct aversion to actually doing reading. When asked to read, they would complain that they couldn't, because it was "boring". They had been so consumed by spectacle that the ordinary act of reading words off a page had drifted beyond their reach.

bigbugbag 9y ago

What do you mean now we are voluntarily enslaving ourselves ? This was already happening in 1548 as pointed out in the discourse on voluntary servitude[1]. [1]: http://www.constitution.org/la_boetie/serv_vol.htm http://www.constitution.org/la_boetie/serv_vol.htm

fiblye 9y ago

People are reading more than ever thanks to the internet and literacy rates are up. The problem is whether those readers and reading things that challenge their world view rather than just affirm everything they already think.

6d6b73 9y ago
Browsing through twitter or fb can't really be considered reading..

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]