FaceBook Idiocy

 Have you ever seen anything completely idiotic on FaceBook?  Have you ever looked in on FaceBook?  The grown man who posted this needs a keeper.

Okay, idiotic book facts.  I have no idea if these percentages are even close to being accurate, but whatever.  You saw it on the Internet, so it must be gospel.  Right?

33% of high school graduates never read another book the rest of their lives.

Given that 26% of the students enrolled in the public school system in Columbus, Ohio were able to score as proficient or better in reading, this 33% doesn't mean much.  Remember, we're talking books.  Not newspapers, magazines, or graphic novels.  Books.  So, out of, let's say, 1,000 pinheads, only 260 are actually able to read a book, and out of that, 174 will read one or more books.  I'm guessing that these are the students who matriculate to higher education.

42% of college graduates never read another book after college.

Which means that out of our 174 people, 101 continue to read after they graduate college.  Of course, reading means that they'll likely start learning about the amount they owe in student loans, then read about just what can be done about it (vote Democrat and pray if you got religion), then start reading books about depression and what can be done to escape it - which is not much, but there you have it.

57% of new books are not read to completion.

Implying that they can't read and they can't write, because if they could write, books would be read to completion, but most are not.

70% of US adults have not been in a book store in the past five years.

Amazon?  On line shopping?

80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.

Implying that 20% did, in fact, buy and read at least one book last year.  I'll settle for that, mainly because I think it's the only statistic cited that might be accurate, and because I do visit bookstores and none of these stores are crowded.

The more a child reads, the likelier they are able to understand the emotions of others.

Given the emotions of the average teenager, I'd venture to say that this particular skill is of questionable usefulness.  In plain language, what isn't sex is either food or some form of violence for boys.  I have no idea what girls think about.  Fashion, makeup, Barbie dolls... whatever.

Reading one hour per day in your chosen field will make you an international expert in 7 years.

Which might actually be true, at least in some fields.  Who knows?  I might try it but I lack a chosen field and I'm not sure I'll last another 7 years.

My mother and her mother, Lord bless them both, taught me to read and write.  I attended public school, and by my own reckoning in the twelve and a half years it took me to graduate, I didn't learn a thing.  Most of the teachers I had should have been summarily fired and perp walked out the front door while the entire student body applauded.  Those that were left should have been paid a whole lot more than they were.

You can check the quality of Ohio public schools here: Ohio Public School Review.  It's the sixth largest school system in the United States, and half the graduates can't perform basic math successfully.  43% can't read or comprehend what they've read.  That means that for every ten cars you see on the freeway, four of them are driven by people who can't read the written exam for a European driver's license.  We ran into trouble with the written exam some years back, and had to change to multiple choice icons.

And now, finally getting right to the point of this hound, we the people expect that the voting population as a whole are required to understand such things as inflation, supply and demand, compound interest, and why Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity is a slow motion economic train wreck of truly monumental proportions.  Add to that the fiasco that passed itself off as our last presidential election, the COVID-19 vaccination fraud, and the clear (clearly denied) symptoms of dementia on public display by the POTUS, along with the open Mexican border, the drug problems, the public displays of sexual perversion along with another dozen false problems - and I'm beginning to wonder if civilization as we know it may actually collapse.

Thanks for reading.