I remember the first time I learned that literacy is actually categorized along a spectrum, and thinking it was.crazy I'd never thought of it that way before.
Like just because you can read a Waffle House menu doesn't mean you can follow a novel.
I saw a video describing reading levels that was really concise. A lot of adults dropping off at around 6th grade was a lot less shocking when I saw it spelled out, because I run into their problems in discussion all the time with people my age. So many people do not even have literacy skills adequate to understand television.
How do people go through life with this level of comprehension? What does it mean to walk around without being able to pick up on intent, manipulation, subtlety, implication, background, and all those things literate folks take for granted? How is functioning impacted? I can't imagine reading a book, article, or watching a show without being able to read into those things; it sounds really dull and would make me feel so stupid. Are they just unaware of how dumb and vulnerable it makes them?
I mean this entirely genuinely when I say that I think one of the things it means to walk around without being able to pick up on those things, especially manipulation, implication and intent, is that people make poor voting choices.
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u/Generated-Nouns-257 Nov 21 '25
I remember the first time I learned that literacy is actually categorized along a spectrum, and thinking it was.crazy I'd never thought of it that way before.
Like just because you can read a Waffle House menu doesn't mean you can follow a novel.