• inshallah2 [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      A population that can’t read and can’t think critically is an easily controlled one.

      When the unredacted version of the Mueller Report came out - I remember MSNBC hosts (and talking heads) kept saying "Everybody should read this..." They repeated that phrase like goddamned cicadas. Plus - of course - It's your duty to be an informed American. And yada-yada fucking yada.

      Holy fuck - do the hosts and talking heads on that channel spend more than a few minutes a week outside of their bubble? Good luck getting an American - any American who is able - to read 1,000 words on a pleasure read never mind 100,000s of words of legalistic dreck. And for 54% of Americans even a ~1,000 word summary would be an impossibility even if they wanted to read that shit.

      The average MSNBC viewer is ~68 years old and they watch - I don't remember the number - something insane like 5+ hours of MSNBC a day. Hey MSNBC hosts - you can't even get your fan base to read. They're waaaaay too busy watching your shows!

      • Dingdangdog [he/him,comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        They're saying it to make their base feel like they have read it.

        I.e. they're being "informed" by folks who claim it is important to have read this report, thus feel as though they have an informed and read opinion on the subject.

        Similar to how a bunch of people feel like they have read the Bible when in reality they have just been lectured on cherry picked passages by preachers

        • spectre [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Sometimes the propagandists are fucking geniuses, this is the sort of thing that's going to be a montage of clips in Century of the Self 2 or something.

          • Dingdangdog [he/him,comrade/them]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            The catholic church invented it a millennia ago, back when it was the state, but yeah it's impressive how well it works on the psyche

    • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I fully agree that literacy is broadly important, and that a revolutionary class consciousness requires historical and political education which requires reading ability, but i have met plenty of educated people who are still totally deluded by liberalism, and plenty of uneducated people whose experience has led them to radical insights.

    • Nagarjuna [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      The Spanish Revolution was notable for how many of its revolutionaries were illiterate.