America the illiterate

[DGS49]

Sorry to get political here, but this whole literacy thing impacts one's thoughts on DEMOCRACY.

As an extremist MAGA Republican, I don't want ignorant, illiterate people voting. The margins of victory in national elections are paper-thin, and our last Presidential election was decided by an army of ignorami, illegally herded together by half a billion dollars in private funds.

This is "democracy"? I don't think so. In fact, I don't think anyone should vote, if (a) registering in advance, (b) getting a free government ID card, and (c) showing up at the polls on Election Day are just too much to handle. Legitimate Absentee Ballot folks excluded, of course.

Leftists consider this viewpoint to be a "threat to 'democracy'," and I can well understand why. If my view prevailed, Democrats would never win another national election, especially if they are successful in naturalizing thirty-plus million illegals.

 

[gipper]

Sorry to get political here, but this whole literacy thing impacts one's thoughts on DEMOCRACY.

As an extremist MAGA Republican, I don't want ignorant, illiterate people voting. The margins of victory in national elections are paper-thin, and our last Presidential election was decided by an army of ignorami, illegally herded together by half a billion dollars in private funds.

This is "democracy"? I don't think so. In fact, I don't think anyone should vote, if (a) registering in advance, (b) getting a free government ID card, and (c) showing up at the polls on Election Day are just too much to handle. Legitimate Absentee Ballot folks excluded, of course.

Leftists consider this viewpoint to be a "threat to 'democracy'," and I can well understand why. If my view prevailed, Democrats would never win another national election, especially if they are successful in naturalizing thirty-plus million illegals.

Why vote? There is little difference between the two criminal gangs. If no one voted, than there can be no consent given by the governed. It’s time!

 

[iansolyn]

In fact, it just seems to all of you that America is illiterate, which is not true. I don't think the U.S. would be a great superpower, even though its population is not far removed in intelligence from monkeys, so it is not.

 

[Woodznutz]

Americans aren't illiterate, they just don't read, especially instructions.

 

[iansolyn]

Americans aren't illiterate, they just don't read, especially instructions.

They read the news about Hunter Biden's narcotic tripe, the FBI's search for that jerk's laptop with corrupt schemes, and the news about the Press Secretary calling all Republicans (that's half our population) Nazis.

 

[psikeyhackr]

You go to school to learn to hate school. I was in grammar school in the 60s. I cannot remember the title of a single book assigned by my so called teachers.

I stumbled across science fiction books in 4th grade. I was shocked that nobody told me that the Sun was a star and that all of the stars are suns. It rocked my galactic paradigm. This was before Star Trek and that Star Wars crap.

Don't give kids interesting books and then wonder why they are illiterate.

Now that is intelligent!

 

[Ringo]

To combat illiteracy:

 

[iansolyn]

You go to school to learn to hate school. I was in grammar school in the 60s. I cannot remember the title of a single book assigned by my so called teachers.

I stumbled across science fiction books in 4th grade. I was shocked that nobody told me that the Sun was a star and that all of the stars are suns. It rocked my galactic paradigm. This was before Star Trek and that Star Wars crap.

Don't give kids interesting books and then wonder why they are illiterate.

Now that is intelligent!

The practice of schools in Eastern Europe that follow the simplified Soviet curriculum shows that children don't really want to learn and are just as illiterate there as they are here. They learn absolutely everything and they are forced to read the necessary books, but they are not interested in studying them, but at the same time these countries are leaders in child alcoholism, as well as the number of smoking children under the age of majority (I remind you that their age is 18 years, not 21 like in our country).

 

[Ray9]

Two Americas…illiteracy in America. I knew it was bad, just not this bad. Is it any wonder many Americans are easily deceived, when they can’t read or write. Many Americans are unable to think logically.

America the Illiterate, by Chris Hedges​

We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. The other America, which constitutes the majority, exists in a non-reality-based belief system. This America, dependent on skillfully manipulated images for information, has severed itself from the literate, print-based culture. It cannot differentiate between lies and truth. It is informed by simplistic, childish narratives and clichés. It is thrown into confusion by ambiguity, nuance and self-reflection. This divide, more than race, class or gender, more than rural or urban, believer or nonbeliever, red state or blue state, has split the country into radically distinct, unbridgeable and antagonistic entities.

There are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. Nearly a third of the nation’s population is illiterate or barely literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year. But even those who are supposedly literate retreat in huge numbers into this image-based existence. A third of high school graduates, along with 42 percent of college graduates, never read a book after they finish school. Eighty percent of the families in the United States last year did not buy a book.
The illiterate rarely vote, and when they do vote they do so without the ability to make decisions based on textual information. American political campaigns, which have learned to speak in the comforting epistemology of images, eschew real ideas and policy for cheap slogans and reassuring personal narratives. Political propaganda now masquerades as ideology. Political campaigns have become an experience. They do not require cognitive or self-critical skills. They are designed to ignite pseudo-religious feelings of euphoria, empowerment and collective salvation. Campaigns that succeed are carefully constructed psychological instruments that manipulate fickle public moods, emotions and impulses, many of which are subliminal. They create a public ecstasy that annuls individuality and fosters a state of mindlessness. They thrust us into an eternal present. They cater to a nation that now lives in a state of permanent amnesia. It is style and story, not content or history or reality, which inform our politics and our lives. We prefer happy illusions. And it works because so much of the American electorate, including those who should know better, blindly cast ballots for slogans, smiles, the cheerful family tableaux, narratives and the perceived sincerity and the attractiveness of candidates. We confuse how we feel with knowledge.
America the Illiterate, by Chris Hedges

This guy who I am sure is a liberal, hit the nail on head many years ago with this great song. Pretty pictures are offered to the illiterate masses in place of conscientious and studied observation. Thank you Paul, you closet conservative you.

kodachrome song - Bing video

www.bing.com

 

[gipper]

The practice of schools in Eastern Europe that follow the simplified Soviet curriculum shows that children don't really want to learn and are just as illiterate there as they are here. They learn absolutely everything and they are forced to read the necessary books, but they are not interested in studying them, but at the same time these countries are leaders in child alcoholism, as well as the number of smoking children under the age of majority (I remind you that their age is 18 years, not 21 like in our country).

It only gets worse generation after generation, yet nothing is done to correct it. It just might be by design.

A Fifth of American Adults Struggle to Read. Why Are We Failing to Teach Them?​

The nation’s approach to adult education has so far neglected to connect the millions of people struggling to read with the programs set up to help them.​

And it’s in the local high school, in a district where a fifth of students drop out, one of the highest rates in the state. Principal Warren Eyster has seen low literacy trickle from one generation to the next — an unusually American phenomenon.

In other wealthy countries, adults with limited education who were born into families with little history of schooling are twice as likely to surpass their parents’ literacy skills. Here, one’s destiny is uniquely entrenched. Though nationwide graduation rates have risen in recent decades, the number of adults who struggle to read remains stubbornly high: 48 million, or 23%.

If there were local programs that could teach adults the reading skills they never got, those parents could help educate their kids and get better jobs, Eyster said. The entire county would benefit: “Our tax base would go up,” he said. But in Amite County, no such program exists.
Why America Fails Adults Who Struggle to Read

 

[BlackSand]

It only gets worse generation after generation, yet nothing is done to correct it. It just might be by design.

Though nationwide graduation rates have risen in recent decades, the number of adults who struggle to read remains stubbornly high: 48 million, or 23%.​

.

... Quote edited for context and connecting the dots ...

The US Department of Education recently completed a study that indicated 19% (close to a fifth) of current High School Graduates ... Are Functionally Illiterate.
It doesn't matter if graduation rates rise when a fifth of the people graduating cannot read and comprehend the diploma you just handed them.

It is by design and with the attempt to suggest that we can break the cycle of poverty and social decay ...
By simply graduating people and qualifying them for better opportunities in the workforce with a meaningless gesture.

It is supported by the Education System because schools are attempting to hit target graduation numbers ...
And some will do whatever it takes, regardless the outcome.

.​

 

[gipper]

.

... Quote edited for context and connecting the dots ...

The US Department of Education recently completed a study that indicated 19% (close to a fifth) of current High School Graduates ... Are Functionally Illiterate.
It doesn't matter if graduation rates rise when a fifth of the people graduating cannot read and comprehend the diploma you just handed them.

It is by design and with the attempt to suggest that we can break the cycle of poverty and social decay ...
By simply graduating people and qualifying them for better opportunities in the workforce with a meaningless gesture.

It is supported by the Education System because schools are attempting to hit target graduation numbers ...
And some will do whatever it takes, regardless the outcome.

.​

I believe decades ago the ruling class valued an educated populace. They implemented policies to help Americans get a quality education.

For example, my father grew up dirt poor during the Great Depression, but received a good primary education from the local public schools. He later used the GI Bill after WWII, to obtain a bachelors and law degree. This resulted in financial success for him and greatly assisted in the success of his five children.

Today many Americans find their primary education inadequate and higher education much too expensive. I suspect this is by design. They want an ignorant populace.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

 

[Woodznutz]

The curriculum can't compete with the distractions.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I believe decades ago the ruling class valued an educated populace. They implemented policies to help Americans get a quality education.

For example, my father grew up dirt poor during the Great Depression, but received a good primary education from the local public schools. He later used the GI Bill after WWII, to obtain a bachelors and law degree. This resulted in financial success for him and greatly assisted in the success of him five children.

Today many Americans find their primary education inadequate and higher education much too expensive.

Todays college "graduates" are the dumbest fucks I've ever seen or heard

 

[Woodznutz]

I had civics and social studies. Both were way over my head.

 

[gipper]

This too was different decades ago. American children were taught the Constitution and its meaning. They were educated on the Bill of Rights and Federalist Papers. This apparently ended sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

I can recall my parents reciting parts of Washington’s Farewell Address nearly word-word and they were in their 50s. They’d both had to memorize it in grade school.

 

[Unkotare]

This too was different decades ago. American children were taught the Constitution and its meaning. They were educated on the Bill of Rights and Federalist Papers. This apparently ended sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s.
...

It has not ended. All those things are still taught.

 

[gipper]

It has not ended. All those things are still taught.

I went through public school long ago. I wasn’t taught any of this. My children went through Catholic school and they weren’t either.

Stop lying.

 

[DGS49]

It has not ended. All those things are still taught.

Specifically, the powers and obligations of the three branches of the Federal Government, and the dividing line between Federal and State jurisdiction?

It doesn't look like it.

How many people voted for Congressional candidates "to protect abortion rights"?

Utterly preposterous. They were/are Constitutionally illiterate.