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[Frumple]

About 130 million adults in the U.S. have low literacy skills according to a Gallup analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Education. This means more than half of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 (54%) read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

idk dude I legit think there is something wrong with the US education system. It's like they teach people wrong on purpose so they have to believe anything they're told because they can't read or understand things that show them how fucked things are

I'd... probably recommend looking more into what the study's saying, because eyeballing it the US's results aren't particularly out of line with (most) other applicable nations.

Beyond that, piles of people read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level largely because that's the normal level stuff's written as. Most published fiction hovers around 5th-6th grade level so far as that kind of thing goes. It's completely unsurprising great swaths of the country don't read higher than that when it's largely unnecessary and unencountered. Too damn tired at the moment to go looking myself and the data wasn't immediately accessible, but you're probably going to find similar numbers for most developed english speaking countries just due to that.

US education system has its problems, but they're largely either no worse or somewhat better than they used to be, though there's definitely been a hit from everything going on with the plague.

Any case, whatever its issues they're bloody peanuts when it comes to general public sentiment compared to our media efforts in regards to stuff like inflation. Most folks have spent a lot more time stewing in that mess than they have in a classroom or classroom equivalent. Put the blame where the impact's happening, y'know? Even folks equipped with the best education background in the world have trouble keeping their head straight in the face of that junk, especially decades after they're out of school.

[MrRoboto75]

From what I see of the public, most people just don't read.  Certainly nothing book length, unlikely much longer than tweet length.

Don't flex the muscle it gets weaker.

[delphonso]

Yeah, Frumple is right. I didn't catch the exact grading system used by the study. But a 6th grade level just generally means the presence of present perfect tense, the use of non-repeting adjectives (i.e. calling something 'big' in one sentence and later describing it as 'large'), and sentence lengths somewhere around 15-25 words. You can really categorize a lot of stuff at that level. Most non-fiction books for the everyman (biographies of celebrities, for example) are going to be that level, and even heady, wordy fiction probably doesn't go over the top with sentence lengths, etc. Articles and websites are designed to be pretty digestible, so that level sounds just about right.

[Lord Shonus]

Maximum Spin is also completely correct here. The study only tracks English literacy, and the highest rates of "poor literacy" are in the California-Florida band along the southern US border. Where a pretty large portion of the population speaks Spanish as their primary language.

[Duuvian]

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/07/26/pass-it-pass-it-pass-it-pass-it-pass-it-the-president-says-about-a-bill-the-gop-says-will-be-useful-to-silence-lgbtq-voices/

There may be a decision in California on the same day according to the comment section regarding a state law that shares some similarities.

I must again suggest that the co-sponsors on the D side seem to be being misled by bad advisors.

[Maximum Spin]

I must again suggest that the co-sponsors on the D side seem to be being misled by bad advisors.

It's really sweet of you to pretend they aren't just being politicians.

[McTraveller]

That KOSA bill: It's like people forget that freedom and responsibility are linked: if you give up responsibility, you have to give up freedom.  If you want freedom, you have to bear responsibility.

[martinuzz]

Only when the last supermarket has been plundered in a strike, the last factory shut down, and the last monthly paycheck recieved, will people realize that freedom cannot be eaten.

[dragdeler]

Where would I go looking for the list of attendance on the congressional hearing on ufos? I mean I'm proud of y'all for not bringing it up, but I saw Matt Gaetz in a snippet and I neeeeed to know if attendance was more or less evenly split among both parties, because I really don't expect that to be the case.

[delphonso]

Can't find one myself. Articles on it mentioned 4 reps and 1 dem, with a photo of 2 dems and 1 rep in attendence.

The committee that is handling the current hearing (National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs) is 12 reps and 6 dems. They'll also hear a mask mandate rant tomorrow, although that seems unrelated to their responsibilities.

There's video footage of the entire hearing. An eagle eyed viewer might be able to spot everyone in attendence.

[Criptfeind]

I watched it and don't know the answer because I didn't recognize most of the congress critters. AOC was there though.

[TamerVirus]

Where would I go looking for the list of attendance on the congressional hearing on ufos? I mean I'm proud of y'all for not bringing it up, but I saw Matt Gaetz in a snippet and I neeeeed to know if attendance was more or less evenly split among both parties, because I really don't expect that to be the case.

Here's the attendance sheet HERE

[dragdeler]

Fuck yeah I knew it had to exist but I took a stab the congress archive on mobile and that was awful.


This data is incongruent I count 8 democrats despite them saying 9 in the total.


Anyway so 17 republicans present 4 democrats present, 9 republicans had questions to ask, 3 democrats had questions to ask. M'yeah... cant be all that important can it.

I'll admit I only saw some snippets, but I think very little of people who said we got proof, nah we got no evidence and the vaguest possible testimonies, get a grip.

[Criptfeind]

I'll admit I only saw some snippets, but I think very little of people who said we got proof, nah we got no evidence and the vaguest possible testimonies, get a grip.

Yeah, I watched pretty much the whole thing and I'd agree with this. As far as I can tell this was just a reiteration of previously stated positions in front of congress (which, I suppose is important in some sense to the process but isn't any more proof then they previously were, that is, none) and a chance for the few congress members interested in more then just doing a little bit of political theater to think about what their next moves are going to be in furthering any investigation.

Over all I remain extremely unconvinced about the existence of any NHI or even interesting UAPs. I'm open to being wrong (I think) but there just doesn't seem to be any good evidence of anything going on.

I'm totally inclined to believe that waste and corruption is rife in the military industrial complex though and that there might be some of that connected to all this. I'd find the outcome of "No aliens, or unexplainable phenomenon, but we sure did find and jail a bunch of people stealing money" as quite a good and exciting one. And right now that's the only good ending I think is at all realistic (with the most realistic ending that I expect to actually happen being "No aliens, or unexplainable phenomenon, no changes to how the military industrial complex spends money")

[MorleyDev]

I mean, the categories of UFO/UAPs are:
* Human Brain go brr and misjudges size/speed
* Poorly understood atmospheric phoenomena (fuck you, Ball Lightning)
* Lies, exaggerations and misrememberings (Light reflected in the eyes! No, glowing eyes! No BIG GLOWING EYES!)
* Classified government projects (Roswell Spy Balloons).

(Also, if ever you hear of an 'alien encounter' that involves large glowing eyes and big head, humanoid shape, levitating and screaming sounds...that's an owl)