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> Comprehension is a higher bar than "literacy". And one would argue that comprehension is more essential than ever, since every last thing you do in the moder

> Comprehension is a higher bar than "literacy". And one would argue that comprehension is more essential than ever, since every last thing you do in the modern world and nearly every product you interact with comes with a pages-long terms and conditions document in which you get the funny stuff like the inability to use iTunes to make nuclear weapons, and far more importantly, how a number of large platform services reserve the right to sell your soul to as many devils as they can. Like, on balance, I'm doing okay in life. I could have more savings put away but ultimately I have a good job in tech, I own a home, and basically have all my essentials handled with a side of a few toys to tinker on. I cannot fathom how I could get my life functioning without strong reading skills. It's... it's literally everything, it's communication in my office since I'm remote, it's filing taxes correctly, it's interacting with my local government, hell writing is a side hobby of mine and has been all my life. I can't fucking imagine what kind of utter hell it must be to even only be literate, let alone illiterate.

relaxing 2y ago
[flagged]
- realce 2y ago
  https://intellectualtakeout.org/2015/10/nazi-germany-was-highly-educated/ https://intellectualtakeout.org/2015/10/nazi-germany-was-hig... >Germany had the world’s finest elementary school system, the highest literacy rate and the best universities; by 1913 more books were published annually in Germany than in any country in the world. Believing that authoritarianism stems from lack of education is a flawed ideology.
  - concerndc1tizen 2y ago
    IIRC, the lead up to WW2 was incredible poverty, and debt to France and others following WW1. So it was easier to just go to war than pay back the debt.
  - Cumpiler69 2y ago
    Pretty much. People thinking "another Hitler can't happen in this day and age" have no idea.
  - relaxing 2y ago
    That’s not what I said. It’s frustration with a system that’s set up to work against you. Is that not a fair assessment of the US political climate?
    - realce 2y ago
      Sorry, I didn't mean to nitpick. I totally agree with you about the frustration, but I also wanted to highlight how authoritarian governments aren't simply the outcome of general social stupidity or a lack of education. IMO that's somewhat of an elitist or champagne-socialist scapegoat and simplification. A notable point would also be that the USSR had an authoritarian government while also maintaining a near 100% literacy rate and an exceptional regard for education. Apologies if I misrepresented your statement.
      - peterfirefly 2y ago
        > while also maintaining a near 100% literacy rate And totally honest official statistics!
      - relaxing 2y ago
        On the other hand, the marked lack of reading comprehension demonstrated in this thread can’t be explained by coincidence alone.
        realce 2y ago
        At least one of us can attempt a civil conversation.
        relaxing 2y ago
        Hijacking a conversation to push your own agenda isn’t civil.
        realce 2y ago
        That's an oddly paranoid statement. My agenda is what - to promote an admiration of Nazi Germany and the USSR's literacy rates?
  - relaxing 2y ago
    Also I think it’s flawed to assume all authoritarian movements are the same. Also I don’t think the literacy measurement in your article is the one we’re talking about here. Also “best universities” isn’t a good indicator for the literacy of the overall populace. Also I don’t think anyone claims Hitler came to power because Germans were dumb.
polishdude20 2y ago
This makes me think of how neuralink and Elon keep saying how their tech will revolutionize communication where people without it will seem so slow and utterly disadvantaged. Literacy and comprehension allows vast amounts of data to be transferred between humans. Anything that increases that even more will be a game changer and really bad for those who won't have it.
- callalex 2y ago
  He also said cars would drive themselves in 2017, so you probably shouldn't listen to anything he has to say. https://fortune.com/2015/12/21/elon-musk-interview/ https://fortune.com/2015/12/21/elon-musk-interview/
  - ToucanLoucan 2y ago
    It's almost like he is not and has never been an actual engineer or something.
    - DiggyJohnson 2y ago
      I challenge you to say one nice thing about Musk’s achievements.
      - callalex 2y ago
        He is legally the “founder” of Tesla.
      - ToucanLoucan 2y ago
        I'll get back to you when he has one. Like seriously, I'm being glib, but also, what fucking achievements? He considers PayPal a failure because it never matured into his everything app. Tesla? The Tesla model S, X, and 3 were all blueprinted by Tesla before he bought it from it's actual founders and ratfucked them out of the company. The only vehicle that's seriously got his influence in it's design is the Cybertruck, and it's a complete shitpile. The Tesla semi has been a complete nothingburger since it's announcement, and he paid a TikTok performer to be his robot on stage because their robots suck ass too. Space X does alright, but they also are using tons of upcycled NASA patents and designs, and while their contributions certainly are far from nothing, that's not Musk. That's the engineers Musk hired. The Boring company is a complete fucking con job, end to end. It's only actual product has been a tunnel full of cars from his other stupid company, and flamethrowers. And again, as with Space X, as with Tesla: he didn't do shit. His engineers did. His marketers did. In fact two of these organizations are rumored to have dedicated teams of people who manage Elon's stupid tendencies so they don't sink the company. And Twitter! Holy fuck where do you START. I fully grant the above are only rumors, but it's rather borne out by the fact that Twitter definitely didn't have an Elon wrangling team, and it shows. He's cratered it to be worth less than 10% of what it was when he bought it. It's gone from being the "worlds front page" stuffed to the gills with ads from prominent brands offering real products to just a higher budget, better engineered Info Wars, complete with the Nazis and the ads for dick supplements every 3 posts as they try desperately to break even in the budget. Meanwhile, "free speech absolutist" Musk bans people for being mean to him and invites folks openly exposed as Russian disinformation discriminators back to what's left of Twitter. And, at a time when the company was already struggling, he got into a pointless fucking pissing match with the city of San Francisco putting up an enormous stupid X on the building which he was eventually made to take down anyway. So like, you challenge me to say a nice thing about Elon's achievements? Okay, but I need your help, because I don't know about any. Let me know of one, and I'll say something nice about it. I don't know if you'd call this an achievement, but I will say he has offered everyone watching for it a first-class lesson in how being a billionare makes you medically incapable of relating to anyone and anything who isn't bending over backwards to tell you how amazing you are. He literally cannot handle any criticism, which is a problem because everything he touches turns to shit in one way or another. And the worst part is our system, as setup, is incapable of holding him to account for any of it. If everything he has goes down in flames, Tesla, X, Space X, Boring, the LOT, he will STILL be worth more than me and my friends will earn in our entire lifetimes. And for DOING WHAT? Making WHAT? Achieving WHAT? If he wasn't the son of an Aparthied emerald mine owner, and didn't have daddy's money to get him started in investing, nobody would know who this fucking weirdo is, and nobody would care. He would be exactly like his fans: socially maladjusted weirdos screaming about white replacement theory on web forums.

relaxing 2y ago

[flagged]

realce 2y ago
https://intellectualtakeout.org/2015/10/nazi-germany-was-highly-educated/ https://intellectualtakeout.org/2015/10/nazi-germany-was-hig... >Germany had the world’s finest elementary school system, the highest literacy rate and the best universities; by 1913 more books were published annually in Germany than in any country in the world. Believing that authoritarianism stems from lack of education is a flawed ideology.
- concerndc1tizen 2y ago
  IIRC, the lead up to WW2 was incredible poverty, and debt to France and others following WW1. So it was easier to just go to war than pay back the debt.
- Cumpiler69 2y ago
  Pretty much. People thinking "another Hitler can't happen in this day and age" have no idea.
- relaxing 2y ago
  That’s not what I said. It’s frustration with a system that’s set up to work against you. Is that not a fair assessment of the US political climate?
  - realce 2y ago
    Sorry, I didn't mean to nitpick. I totally agree with you about the frustration, but I also wanted to highlight how authoritarian governments aren't simply the outcome of general social stupidity or a lack of education. IMO that's somewhat of an elitist or champagne-socialist scapegoat and simplification. A notable point would also be that the USSR had an authoritarian government while also maintaining a near 100% literacy rate and an exceptional regard for education. Apologies if I misrepresented your statement.
    - peterfirefly 2y ago
      > while also maintaining a near 100% literacy rate And totally honest official statistics!
    - relaxing 2y ago
      On the other hand, the marked lack of reading comprehension demonstrated in this thread can’t be explained by coincidence alone.
      - realce 2y ago
        At least one of us can attempt a civil conversation.
        relaxing 2y ago
        Hijacking a conversation to push your own agenda isn’t civil.
        realce 2y ago
        That's an oddly paranoid statement. My agenda is what - to promote an admiration of Nazi Germany and the USSR's literacy rates?
- relaxing 2y ago
  Also I think it’s flawed to assume all authoritarian movements are the same. Also I don’t think the literacy measurement in your article is the one we’re talking about here. Also “best universities” isn’t a good indicator for the literacy of the overall populace. Also I don’t think anyone claims Hitler came to power because Germans were dumb.

polishdude20 2y ago

This makes me think of how neuralink and Elon keep saying how their tech will revolutionize communication where people without it will seem so slow and utterly disadvantaged. Literacy and comprehension allows vast amounts of data to be transferred between humans. Anything that increases that even more will be a game changer and really bad for those who won't have it.

callalex 2y ago
He also said cars would drive themselves in 2017, so you probably shouldn't listen to anything he has to say. https://fortune.com/2015/12/21/elon-musk-interview/ https://fortune.com/2015/12/21/elon-musk-interview/
- ToucanLoucan 2y ago
  It's almost like he is not and has never been an actual engineer or something.
  - DiggyJohnson 2y ago
    I challenge you to say one nice thing about Musk’s achievements.
    - callalex 2y ago
      He is legally the “founder” of Tesla.
    - ToucanLoucan 2y ago
      I'll get back to you when he has one. Like seriously, I'm being glib, but also, what fucking achievements? He considers PayPal a failure because it never matured into his everything app. Tesla? The Tesla model S, X, and 3 were all blueprinted by Tesla before he bought it from it's actual founders and ratfucked them out of the company. The only vehicle that's seriously got his influence in it's design is the Cybertruck, and it's a complete shitpile. The Tesla semi has been a complete nothingburger since it's announcement, and he paid a TikTok performer to be his robot on stage because their robots suck ass too. Space X does alright, but they also are using tons of upcycled NASA patents and designs, and while their contributions certainly are far from nothing, that's not Musk. That's the engineers Musk hired. The Boring company is a complete fucking con job, end to end. It's only actual product has been a tunnel full of cars from his other stupid company, and flamethrowers. And again, as with Space X, as with Tesla: he didn't do shit. His engineers did. His marketers did. In fact two of these organizations are rumored to have dedicated teams of people who manage Elon's stupid tendencies so they don't sink the company. And Twitter! Holy fuck where do you START. I fully grant the above are only rumors, but it's rather borne out by the fact that Twitter definitely didn't have an Elon wrangling team, and it shows. He's cratered it to be worth less than 10% of what it was when he bought it. It's gone from being the "worlds front page" stuffed to the gills with ads from prominent brands offering real products to just a higher budget, better engineered Info Wars, complete with the Nazis and the ads for dick supplements every 3 posts as they try desperately to break even in the budget. Meanwhile, "free speech absolutist" Musk bans people for being mean to him and invites folks openly exposed as Russian disinformation discriminators back to what's left of Twitter. And, at a time when the company was already struggling, he got into a pointless fucking pissing match with the city of San Francisco putting up an enormous stupid X on the building which he was eventually made to take down anyway. So like, you challenge me to say a nice thing about Elon's achievements? Okay, but I need your help, because I don't know about any. Let me know of one, and I'll say something nice about it. I don't know if you'd call this an achievement, but I will say he has offered everyone watching for it a first-class lesson in how being a billionare makes you medically incapable of relating to anyone and anything who isn't bending over backwards to tell you how amazing you are. He literally cannot handle any criticism, which is a problem because everything he touches turns to shit in one way or another. And the worst part is our system, as setup, is incapable of holding him to account for any of it. If everything he has goes down in flames, Tesla, X, Space X, Boring, the LOT, he will STILL be worth more than me and my friends will earn in our entire lifetimes. And for DOING WHAT? Making WHAT? Achieving WHAT? If he wasn't the son of an Aparthied emerald mine owner, and didn't have daddy's money to get him started in investing, nobody would know who this fucking weirdo is, and nobody would care. He would be exactly like his fans: socially maladjusted weirdos screaming about white replacement theory on web forums.