This is a new and bad definition of illiteracy. America is more literate than it has ever been; it started with Harry Potter, and grew with the internet. Everyb

This is a new and bad definition of illiteracy. America is more literate than it has ever been; it started with Harry Potter, and grew with the internet. Everybody can read, and that was not true when I was a kid, because English is hard to read. You mostly have to read to participate on the internet. The lack of basic communication ability of the people on the early internet was shocking, and that's all gone. I rarely run into people who capitalize Every Single Word any more, and I never thought that would happen. The problem is that kids are stupid, because their parents are teaching them (and demanding they repeat) a number of bizarre views of the world, and all of the media they consume is propagandistic and dumb. That's what's showing up on reading comprehension tests. Not that they don't understand the words, but that they lack the ability to put together a complex thought because they have been encouraged not to have them; that complex thoughts are suspicious, weird, and try-hard and make them feel like they're about to look stupid; and that having a thought by yourself is the surest way to be ostracized and to deserve to be. They're scared to think, they've been crippled. They just want you to tell them what to say, so they can get back to their video game, or to TikTok.