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They don’t like to read more than a couple of sentences.
tl;dr?
wordn’t
I know we don't do gold here, but you have done something worthy of praise. So, I pledge to give a few dollars to your instance (lemmy.world).
Exactly
Yes.
Honestly I wonder how much reading comprehension they struggle with. Like the average reading level is 8th grade, if that iirc. I swear they drop out as soon as there are big words cuz they get pissed they can't understand. People that lean left are clinically shown to be more* (not not) open minded, and I imagine are the ones going and googling when they don't know or have someone right there they trust to explain.
It's an emotional thing. They base their beliefs about how the world works based on what makes them feel better about themselves. Everything else is just backtracking from the conclusion to find a justification for it. And anything that doesn't fit that narrative gets thrown away or ignored.
The odd part is how often that works. Like, I went to work Monday through Friday, therefore I should go to work on Saturday, right? That's... that's... that's... not how that works, or at least not how it is supposed to. And by extension, humanity has survived on earth for my entire lifetime and for many others besides, so s-s-surely this is not the end for our species? (based on what evidence though?)
Though at some point we see that the level of cognitive dissonance is far too high to be explainable purely by lack of intelligence - (almost) nobody is that dumb. And also there are literally people with PhDs and even MDs who were prescribing Ivermectin rather than the COVID vaccine, so it's not something that correlates perfectly with "intelligence" as in logical acuity, rather than emotional whatever (agility I think is the current term?).
The era of information is over, where people are considered "smart" if they know more things or can do more. Now we are entering a new era, seemingly characterized by not merely misinformation but active sources of disinformation. Now, survival of the fittest depends not only on individual emotional agility but also extensible to one's "tribe", as in when presented with two mutually exclusive set of facts, which one will someone choose to believe? (On the one hand we have 1+1=2, while on the other, we can hear words literally from someone's actual mouth, but the talking heads can manage to convince people that they did not see what they saw or hear what they heard and definitely what was meant was not meant - I'm saying that some people might legit be too dumb to live, sorry if that seems unkind, it distresses me too but if it is what it is, therefore..., =2 it is then).
If I had to categorize myself I would say that I am a pragmatic idealist.
I have a concept of a world where people tend to work together and generally operate in methods and manners that are mutually beneficial for the betterment of all.
That idealism is tempered by my pragmatic understanding that stupidity is praised and given friendships and social connections because no matter how many smart people there are the stupid people will always outnumber them.
And the stupid people don't know that they are stupid.
So you cannot pretend that things will work out the way you think they will because no matter how stupid you think the people are around you they are far more stupid than that.
They will destroy you and themselves just to prove to you that being smart and capable is not enough to succeed in the world.
They will do horrendous things to you in order to prove to you that people do horrendous things to people.
And they truly in their heart of hearts and soul of souls before the Lord God Almighty believe they are doing the right thing when they do it.
My politics are left but my optimism is non-existent.
I do want to add to that very quickly that I do not believe that this stupidity is tied to IQ.
My sister has an IQ in the 160 to 180 range and she's the dumbest motherfucker I've ever met in my entire life. She is sadistic and enjoys destroying happiness and joy and anything that she can get her hands on while she herself has accomplished nothing and done nothing with her life. She's willfully and intelligently stupid, so don't assume that just because somebody is smart that they are not stupid.
If I may? I think there is room for hope, but it depends on where you place that hope. For instance, I don't believe that democracy will prevail in the USA for much longer - setting aside the Russian Roulette that we play every single time (more often than 4 years bc Congress), there is still that SCOTUS ruling that has already given the sitting President the power to legally assassinate their political rivals. The wheel keeps turning, and the ratchet keeps it always moving forwards towards the grand design of those who have power to implement such things.
But while there may be no more hope for that, what will come afterwards? People will still need things - so farmers will still farm, service members will still serve, scientists will still learn about the world, etc. Granted, much of that will be replaceable with automation, but e.g. the internet did not completely replace books, and this next transition too will be harsh but something will carry forward.
And since we do not know what or how etc., I adopt an attitude of "we don't know", rather than either pessimism or optimism. But since hope is mandatory for human existence, I also choose to have it (plus if I'm wrong, humanity will cease to exist, so who would be left to care anyway? it is definitely a win-win bet for me there:-P).
Something like half of US adults cannot read at a 6th grade level. That's like reading for plot. That's reading a couple paragraphs about like "Sally moved to New Jersey from Maine when she was 17. She went to college at NYU, where she met her future husband Jake. They got married and now have two children." -> "Where did Sally meet her husband?". A lot of people struggle with that. And we kind of expect them to keep up with politics.
Some of that is their fault. They don't try. They don't want to be literate. But a lot of it is a failure of our public education system. But that is largely the fault of conservatives who don't want to fund it.
You're also not going to find a lot of those people on a platform like this that's mostly written, and where the norms generally a somewhat high level of diction that adheres to standard english.
Some want to listen - others merely to speak.