Are you a critical thinker?
Or are you a contrarian?
Hyperreality
joined 2 years ago
Beck, who joined the army at 16, had no diagnosed mental health conditions, according to the report. Britain is one of 19 countries that recruit 16-year-olds into the army.
the average person reading at a high level is, past some sort of weird elitism?
An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for the survival of a free people.
People who can't read well, can't easily learn further skills, fact check, do proper research, and invariably lack the ability to do proper critical thinking.
The end result is gullible stupid people, making stupid decisions. People who think research involves watching youtube/tiktok videos.
also don't particularly care how well the average adult has their multiplication tables memorised
I don't think memorising multiplication tables is a thing anymore, but if you can't do basic calculations, you're an easy mark for many businesses.
Teaching people to read, write, and do basic maths is about making them self-reliant.
You joke, but I went back to college for a bit a few years back. We'd read an article in class. I'd have read the thing in a minute or two. The rest of the class would take 10 minutes or more.
And these were educated people in a college class. I really think phone use has ruined a lot an entire generation's ability to read and grasp the essence of a text quickly.
This'll likely force budget airlines (who are infamous for this stuff) to raise their prices, so it'll also do that.
I've always been a bit of a misanthrope, but I suspect covid really opened a lot of people's eyes on what humans are actually like when shit hits the fan.
We will likely end up having to support Ukraine on our own, if Trump's re-elected. The US is no longer a reliable NATO ally.
The problem is that it takes time to build weapons factories and existing stockpiles are low. We can barely keep up manufacturing what we've promised, let alone increase what we're giving.
Not like the Russians, who never throw anything away, and happily send their troops to the front with crap that the west would have scrapped decades ago. Obviously, that results in a lot of Russians dying or being maimed, but they don't give a fuck about their own people.
They weren't deporting axis power fascists in the 1920s. They were primarily deporting peasants who resisted collectivisation. They weren't 'axis power fascists'. Even Stalin didn't use that excuse.
The first deportations of ethnic minorities started in the 1920s.
I googled. 42.4% of adults according to the most recent figures. That's closer to half than a third.
2014 it was closer to a third. 2017-2020 it was 42.4%. Given the tred, I wouldn't be surprised that it'll be close to or more than half now.
At least Russia’s criminal population isn’t dominated by ethnic minorities.
I wonder if that's entirely true. I strongly suspect they're overrepresented. Historically the Soviets deported a lot of non-Russian minorities to penal colonies. Same thing now, where a lot of Ukrainians are being deported to the far east.
Russians are also quite frequently virulently racist. People from the Caucusus, central-Asia, etc. Anti-semitism too.
Of course, now they're disproportionately sending those minorities to die in Ukraine, so there's that.
How would you find out which lawyer to hire?
Would someone with good reading skills be more or less susceptible to online misinformation?
Would someone with good reading skills be more or less able to read a simple (non-life changing) contract?