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Almost certain they were playing it up and this is satire, sorry to spoil everyone’s fun. https://www.instagram.com/jaayfilms They started again on September 30 this year and are now in Missouri. If these content creators are good at one thing it’s creating a compelling narrative and this guy did it by getting himself called illiterate.
I’ll admit there is a part of me thats relieved.
Same, I was full. Ahh. That’s better.
Oh shit, he’s in the home state of illiteracy now
That guys vote counts the same as yours. Just saying.
This might not be true. Depending on where you live, your vote could be worth about 0.8th of what this guys vote is worth
Casper and Cheyenne Wyoming have the 75k most powerful voters in the country.
They control the same number of US Senators as the world’s 5th largest economy.
The fact that 75k can filibuster 40m is the peak of absurdity.
The idea behind wisdom of the crowd is that the people who don’t know the answer cancel each other out. It’s the reason why the audience joker on who wants to be a millionaire is so powerful.
Wisdom of the crowds works when people are making somewhat educated guesses. It falls apart though if everybody groups themselves into camps that either think A or B and no other option because their camp leader has told them that they think A or B
If he’s from California then my vote counts a little more because my state has less population. The smaller the state’s population the more their vote counts.
Wyoming has the lowest population.
Makes sense why candidates spend all their time trying to get these powerful voters on their side. Those 3 electoral votes really makes it the most powerful swing state.
Someone in Wyoming has more electoral votes to their votes, yes. And I believe that is the point you’re making.
If everyone in Wyoming voted for Candidate A. Candidate A has basically the same chance of winning or losing.
If everyone in California voted for Candidate A. Candidate A has a lot better chance of winning.
It’s more powerful to be able to vote in something that actually matters than to vote in something that doesn’t.
You could just not count any votes in Wyoming and still call the overall winner 99.999% of the time. It would have to come down to 3 electoral votes tie breaker for their votes to even matter. Whereas every vote in California always matters.
Like in this last election. If Harris won every “swing state”. But Trump could have won California and he’d win the election.
Electoral college has It’s pros and cons but “The smaller the state’s population the more their vote counts.” Isn’t true.
It’s the middle size, “swing states”, that the voters have the most powerful.
You aren’t a drop in the bucket like California, but your state has enough electoral votes to actually swing things.
It wasn’t about how much the states electoral votes matter, but how much a single persons vote matters in the entire election.
If 50.000 people in California changes their vote it hardly matters. If 50.000 people in wyoming do that, it heavily influences the outcome of who wyoming votes for.
1 person in wyoming matters more than 1 person in California.
It wasn’t about how much the states electoral votes matter, but how much a single persons vote matters in the entire election.
How electoral votes matter is the whole point. If it was done by pure population they would have equal voting power. They do not have equal voting power because the electoral votes matter.
1 person in Wyoming makes more difference in how Wyoming election turns out. Less population, more influence.
There are 538 electoral votes divided over 50 states
Wyoming has 3
California has 54
Wyoming has 584k people
California has 39m people
In Wyoming each voters has 5.137E-6 electoral votes to cast
In California each voters has 8.98305085E−7 electoral votes to cast
Now winner takes all electoral votes aside. Someone in Wyoming is contributing more electoral votes to their candidate than someone in California.
This is what’s always argued when talking about voting power based on population
If the candidate needs 270 to win, if I am able to give more to a candidate with my vote, my vote is more powerful in a way.
There has been two elections decided by 3 electoral votes. 1876 Hayes and 1796 Adams. Total electoral votes at the time were 261 and 138, respectively. It would be equivalent to winning by 6 and 12 votes today with the 538 electoral votes. So while it was 3, those 3 votes meant a lot more back then when it was 3/261 or 3/138.
If 50.000 people in California changes their vote it hardly matters. If 50.000 people in wyoming do that, it heavily influences the outcome of who wyoming votes for.
Like I said earlier, yes, Wyoming voters have more influence on who wins their electoral votes and they have more electoral votes per person
California with 53 electoral votes is a 106 point swing. Taking 53 electoral votes from the winning candidate and giving it to the runner up would change the majority of all the elections.
Think of it this way:
2 states just California and Wyoming. California has 53 votes, Wyoming 3.
56 votes total. Need 29 votes to win.
Biggest issue the candidates are running on is spending money on beaches.
Candidate A: For spending
Candidate B: Against spending
California wants A, Wyoming wants B.
If what you’re saying is true, then Wyoming should have the most power in this election because each of their votes count more than a person in California.
584k deciding 3 electoral votes vs 39m deciding 53 electoral votes
Yet every single person in Wyoming could vote candidate B, and it’s still going to be up to California to decide
So would you want to be a voter in Wyoming or California?
California because your vote doesn’t matter in Wyoming. No matter who you vote for in Wyoming, California is going to decide. You want to be able to cast your vote in California to hopefully swing the state
If you gave those 584k Wyoming voters the chance to not cast their vote in Wyoming but instead cast their vote in California against the 39m, they would be wise to do it. Doesn’t matter where 3/56 electoral votes go, it matters much more where the 53/56 electoral votes go.
So yes, while each voter in California has less effect on the California electoral votes. California has more effect on the total electoral votes.
Being able to participate in a more important election is worth more than having more influence in an election that is next to meaningless.
tldr
TLDR:
Only 2 states to simplify things
Wyoming 3 EV
California 53 EV
56 EV total, 29 EV need to win
Wyoming still has more EV per capita
California wants Candidate B
Wyoming wants Candidate A
Who decides the election? (California)
If what you’re saying is that the smaller population with more EV per capita has more pull in an election, then Wyoming would actually have a shot at making Candidate A win by themselves.
California has 53/538 EV.
California controls 10% of the total EVs
Wyoming controls .06%
TLDR again:
As a voter, being able to effect 10% of the total EVs is more powerful than being able to effect .06%.
You’re missing the point. The viewpoint in the argument is from a single voter. One vote in wyoming weighs more than one vote in California
Democracy!
Devil’s advocate. We should only let a select few who we deem as intelligent to vote for us?
Can confirm I live in ZA WARUDO!
That voter is gonna learn some stuff.
I was not surprised by the presence of a giant cross necklace.
He can’t read, so that makes sense.
Following an ignoramus, who can’t read and doesn’t know mountains exist (?) … Yeah, what a content, definitely worth the invention of Internet
“It’s one country, Michael, how wide could it be? Two weeks of skateboarding?”
Fun fact: mountains are big.
Source?
What about small mountains tho
You keep your mouth shut
Aren’t those hills tho
Not-so-fun fact: He’ll have to be rescued with taxpayer money
Another fact: Society failed to educate him properly using taxpayer money.
Perhaps society deserves to face the consequences of its actions.
I agree with you and have even more to add -
Even more fun fact - the taxpayer money that will likely eventually be used to rescue this person, potentially saving their life, is an infinitesimal waste compared to so very many other things. I’m not ever going to shame someone or expect them to be billed/prosecuted/etc for their rescue unless they criminally broke the law in order to arrive at that state. (and maybe not even then)
You can only teach someone as much as they’re willing to learn.
He has a skateboard though
And the skateboard is the fastest way to get around Lego Island
You’ve just triggered a memory. Something about vehicles zooming around Lego Island. Were you able to get out of them while they were moving so that they kept going?
Oh I have no idea, I remember very little of that game. Something about a helicopter crash and a race you had to use the skateboard for. It was the fastest vehicle.
I don’t believe so, no
Probably will find a half pipe somewhere.
Mountain valleys are nature’s halfpipes writ large.
For what its worth: He made it to NY today. No rescue required. The community helped him out along the way.
Awesome! I’m glad they made it. I’d never dare to set off like that without a huge backpack stuffed with a week’s worth of food
Boring facts: The highest pass he’ll have to cross on his journey looks like this:
If he’ll have to be rescued, then because someone ran him over.
Meanwhile a normal mountain pass in the normal world:
What does this mean?
Probably that the US is No. 1 in paving straight over every available surface. And that they will move mountains to do it apparently.
Do you see the picture? What’s confusing to you?
That’s just the section of the map for drift challenges
Could also get snowed in somewhere or unable to get to shelter during a major storm.
I mean he should get to the East Coast around 70 days from now, what are the chances he’ll see snow before January 30th. Guess he can turn around and ride back through the Appalachian Mountains in February. No snow there right?
How does he use IG?
Assuming its not a parody.
Using a screen reader
You’d be surprised how functional the illiterate can be.
You’d be functional how surprised can be the illiterate.
Functional be you’d illiterate can surprised the be how.
You’d be surprised how little IG users can read.
You’d be surprised how functional the illiterate can be.
Yeah, just look at Trump. Functional illiteracy is a real thing in the US.
All 7 words he knows? It’s called THE WEAVE!..or something.
When I first moved to Japan, I had to use lots of websites that used untranslatable images (not text, like png or whatever and google lens was not a thing). I got help a few times and memorized what clicking on an area did more than even what the image was (which would change sometimes). This is how I got by with ATMs and various websites for quite a while. It works until something changes. Today, screen readers, google lens, and other things exist to help as well.
Sounds like just learning to read would be a better use of your time then. I mean if you already speak the language it should be fairly trivial, right?
I literally started with “When I first moved to Japan”.
To answer your question, though, learning to read Kanji is not trivial especially when each one can have a number of different pronunciations or appear in compounds where the meaning can be quite different.
Laughs in Kanji
笑
Im sorry, i don’t know Spanish.
Nice try. Still getting deported.
You do realise that in Japan they don’t use Roman letters?! Sounds are one thing, a pictorial based writing system quite another! Just as in English, the same sounding word can mean several things, so the same spelt word can mean several things in Asian languages!
How many languages can you speak?
Orogeny gonna get ya
And here I was thinking this whole time it was the rhythm that would.
I met a guy like that in the 90’s except he was on a lot of LSD and was making his way around the world. IDK if that was true but my buddy picked him up one night and we had a party with him and he cut his dreads off and burned them so a witch wouldn’t get them. Good times!
The dreads were magic, and you helped him free him self, and now he works a white collar job
Who cut whose dreads off?
The traveling dude cut his dreads with my buddies help
That must’ve smelled horrible.
Does he have learning disabilities? How does someone with so much motivation not learn to read
It is easy to have motivation to skateboard across america when you don’t have enough education to understand what doing that means.
“According to the known laws of physics, bumble bees should not be able to fly”
I hate when people use that line as some sort of proof that scientists are fools. It’s like, do y’all really think scientists are looking at bees and crying over equations that the bees (that predated any and all forms of math done by humans) somehow are making them reevaluate.
- Its been debunked
- Thats not what im using it for
- Huh?
- I didn’t think you were, I was just making conversation.
Laws of aviation. And it’s true, because planes do not flap their wings.
?
“But the Bumblebee does not know these laws, and flies anyways”
(easy to travel when you don’t have enough education to understand what doing that means)
Illiterate refers to both being able to read basic words all the way up to reading comprehenson. Equally possible he simply cannot understand what he reads and is anti-intellectual as that seems to be on the rise in the US.
As a victim of the US public School system, every class had one or more kids that simply couldn’t read aloud in class for one reason or another. The teachers learned to not call on them in the future to keep things moving.
Some of them got moved to special education classes over the years, but in my experience they were just free periods to keep them from slowing the other kids down.
It’s sad, I knew a guy that was smart as a whip, but we went to a restaurant he wasn’t used to and he sheepishly asked me what was on the menu since there weren’t any pictures.
It’s called functional literacy, which is what’s being talked to here. Also, your anecdote fails to address other possibilities. I have a friend that, under stress of a new location, may lose the ability to read menus, and their literacy matches other academics in their field. I am a reader that cannot read aloud because that is an entirely different skill than reading.
Spelling (in non phonetic languages) has nothing to do with intelligence levels - it is all to do with memory and exposure. Perhaps he never went to school, or the level of education was pathetic… or he is incredibly dyslexic. Sorry if this answer sounds harsh but I’m pissed-off at what you wrote. I know of at least one illiterate person who stands head and shoulders above the “college kids” around them. They were such an integral part of our team that were bought them speech-to-text / text-to-speech software to keep their job.
That’s why I didn’t say he was stupid. I asked if he had a learning disability which is not a taboo thing and it doesn’t mean you’re stupid. If anything I complimented him on his motivation and determination. You were just out to find something to get mad and offended over so you interjected that into my comment, even though I didn’t say that. I see that happening a lot lately with Americans. They all wanna be offended so they can moralize
or he is incredibly dyslexic
Dyslexia is a learning disability
Most likely functionally illiterate and not 100% “I can’t read,” but I’ve overestimated instagrammers before
Most people are illiterate. Literacy is a skill with levels and most people don’t actually ever reach the level required to be a fully functional person.
This meme is a great example. Most people don’t actually reach Ogre’s level of literacy. Yeah, it’s played for laughs in the fact that Ogre is smarter than the average human, but Ogre is also completely correct about the level of literacy we should expect of people, in a perfect world.
A lot about this is, in my opinion, misleading.
I don’t need to be able to read Ulysses and understand all the themes and the deeper meanings, to be literate. As to actually understand all the meanings, I would have to be familiar with the culture in which it was written and the personal perspective of the author on that culture.
I don’t think the perfect world entails that everyone (or, at least most people) is overly familiar with ancient cultures and authors.
Unfamiliarity with the context of what was written is usually why people don’t catch on themes. A person with german cultural background will not read a passage about bringing honor to your bloodline, in the same way a chinese person will. A lot of Germans are deeply suspicious of the idea of honor. I learned that after decades with Germans and their culture.
How many Cultures are you familiar enough with to be able to correctly understand a text written in it?
E.g. the “remorse of conscience” is a cultural theme. A person who reads a lot of books and seek out these themes, has a different culture than a person who only scrolls on TikTok. And if the person reading books isn’t on TikTok, they are probably unable to properly understand the themes in a TikTok.
And yes, you said that there are different levels of literacy, so you didn’t say that I was illiterate if I wouldn’t catch on the “remorse”. But you present literacy as a 1 dimensional scale. 1 level, 2, 3, etc… When it is not, your ability to correctly parse a text is not 1 dimensional. You will probably fail to correctly understand a story written in ancient china, and if you understand it, you will probably fail to understand a story written in the 1950s in Germany.
Get off the horse. Stand next to us and enjoy your pleasure of reading with other people and learn different perspectives. They aren’t less literate than you, they are differently literate than you.
Yeah, I’ve been really enjoying discussing the themes and deeper meanings in the stormlight archive, but a ton of its themes are deeply American or focused on mental illness or theology and those are areas I have background in. If I were to read the tale of genji or some Dostoyevsky I’d miss so much. I can’t imagine someone in China really getting Huckleberry Finn because it’s deeply American satire, hell I don’t expect a Brit to get it particularly well either.
Most people can’t understand the themes of works from their own culture. How many American conservatives think the Matrix supports their ideas, and brag about taking the “red pill”, not realising it’s an estrogen pill? How many people watch Rick and Morty, and proceed to idolise Rick? Or the same with Sherlock, or House? How many people think Thanos did nothing wrong?
So much of our popular media criticises the flaws inherent in capitalism. Iron Man does it. Star Wars does it. Why don’t we live in a society of socialists? When Starship Troopers was first released, it bombed. Because most people couldn’t tell it was satire. It took years for people to catch on.
Hell, most christians read the Bible and think Jesus was white! It is literally their religious identity, and they can’t be bothered to understand it.
Drag doesn’t think literacy is one dimensional. But drag does think that most people don’t meet the standard for being a functional person in any culture. If most people were literate, then most of the kids who grew up watching Captain Planet would be vegan and carfree. But they aren’t, because they fundamentally don’t understand how to think about the entertainment media they consume.
And by the way, it’s a high dragon, not a horse.
I agree with you about most people not understanding their social structural sorroundings sufficiently to lead their (collective) lives in a souvereign way.
But this is not a primarily cognitive problem. Just as much it is rooted in the social structure itself. One must take into account: Which opportunities does a given act of thinking and understanding provide an individual?
In an individualized and individualizing political, ecological, cultural landscape, understanding things critically often is fruitless. For example to ensure social affiliation or navigate through the market specifique concepts, notions and sorts of “truth” are productive. Analyzing your culture to find collective paths of historic development require different scopes.
Praxeology might be a notion you could enjoy exploring.
IMO this is important if you want both, get of the high horse and fly the mighty dragon of critique.
Drag agrees, society is to blame for the way people are.
But, people are also to blame for the way society is. It’s a vicious chicken.
Therefore, we need to educate people, like by telling them there’s more to literacy than knowing to to read something literally.
to be a fully functional person
I’m pretty sure people with sub-god-tier level reading abilities, as you say they should have, can function just fine in their day to day.
No, they can’t. The globe is warming and the human race is on its way to extinction. Humanity is failing as a species.
Drag’s right on this one lads, sad but true
And furthermore, Captain Planet told us all what to do in the 90s. Abolish the conditions of Capital which allow greedy billionaires to destroy the environment for personal enrichment. We didn’t pay enough attention to realise what we had to do, because we’re media illiterate. It’s not just Captain Planet, there’s thousands of books, movies, songs, and TV shows that tell us what the problems are in society, and we still don’t fix them!
No, most people are not illiterate, you’re confusing literacy with media literacy because that’s what you want to talk about instead.
There is a difference between “I don’t know what that sign says” and “I don’t know what this book means.”
It’s called functional literacy, which is what’s being talked to here. Also, your anecdote fails to address other possibilities. I have a friend that, under stress of a new location, may lose the ability to read menus, and their literacy matches other academics in their field. I am a reader that cannot read aloud because that is an entirely different skill than reading.
I know I’m talking about functional illiteracy, that’s why I said “Most likely functionally illiterate” in my comment.
The person who replied to me brought up media literacy/illiteracy, which is a separate concept, and mistakenly referred to it as illiteracy, which I corrected.
Somehow this comment replied to the wrong one, oops!
I have ‘Agenbite Inwit’ tattooed on my person and feel as though this ogre meme has called me out.
See the great historical documentary ‘Forrest Gump’.
Idunno anything about this guy, but for some folks they just weren’t taught early enough. You can learn to read at any age, but no amount of motivation can match an early education
Is this not the hatchet wielding hitchhiker guy?
Kai? He is in jail for murder I think.
for anyone surprised I’ll provide exhibit A
I feel like a longboard would be better for this.
No need to board shame him. He’s just rocking with what he’s got. It’s not the size of the board, it’s the motion on the pavement.
If the longboard is the length of the US and he mounts it, does that count? Does he have to walk the length on the longboard? I have so many (very stupid) questions!
For what its worth: He made it to NY last Saturday.
Wow, seriously? What a trek.
Literally illiterate?
He didn’t know America had mountains.
Then he’s immounterate
Insurmountable.
According to a third party on X
That is willful ignorance, not illiteracy. People talk about the rocky mountains, they are mentioned in songs…
He just thought they were not real.
Also dude is from California. I don’t know how you don’t know about Americas mountains there. Iowa or Illinois, sure, the mountains are very far away from you. But anywhere west of the Rockies you’ve got too much geography too close to not know that there are mountains in America
Yeah, he was going to take the Rocky Mountain Way. He’s was assured it made up for the shortcomings of the previous way.
The percentage of the population that’s illiterate is way higher than it has any business being.
Like “can’t read at an elementary school” level.
Wow, those figures are shocking. US of A, 1st economy in the world, 1st military power in the world and our space, 36th in literacy rate. I am sad for fellow Americans :(
The US ranks 36th in literacy.
This is a deceptive statistic. It merely indicates that many countries like Uzbekistan and North Korea falsely report 100% literacy rates. Look here. The USA literacy rate is actually about the same as that of other wealthy Western democracies.
You are right. Very interesting link, thanks !
North Korea probably does have high literacy so the people can read and understand all the propaganda.
Promoted to mod of and banned from c/Pyongyang in one comment
The US should be doing much better in all categories based on its wealth alone, but this is kind of an important factor.
34% of adults lacking literacy proficiency were born outside the US.
With the two high stats being on the North East, and the low stats being in the south west near the border with Mexico.
So that makes me wonder what percentage of the 34% that were not born here are literate in another language
Because I know I have met a number of people who have moved here and haven’t learned English yet, but if you pass a translation app between each other, they can read it in their native language.
The percentage of the population that’s illiterate is way higher than it has any business being.
Like “can’t read at an elementary school level”.
“There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics” - Mark Twain
Not in your link, but I found the same statistics as your link in another with a critical piece of information:
“According to researchers, 4 out of 5 Americans 18 and over possess medium to high proficiency in English reading and writing.” source
These statistics, both your link and mine, may only be measuring literacy in English.
So looking to get a clue how many may have literacy in another language:
“Today, 13.8 percent of the nation’s residents are foreign-born” source
So at least a percentage of those being counted as USA illiterate may indeed be literate in another language that isn’t English.
The word “may” is doing all the heavy lifting here.
Of course it is a low confidence answer for that non-English but literate population. I’m not saying that 100% of those called illiterate are actually literate in another language. I’m saying that the statement that the illiteracy rate is as high as posted is likely wrong because it only accounts for English.
The “may” statement you’re taking issue with is a quick attempt to find out possibly how big that non-English but literate population might be. Its not a definitive answer. You’re welcome to spend your time chasing a more precise number. I’d exhausted my interested when I got my number.
I’m not going to say it was your intention, but it reads like “immigrants are lowering the literacy rate”. It’s something I’ve seen too often.
Regardles, from the page you linked:
54% of adults have a literacy below sixth-grade level
That would not be explained by a 13.8 percent of foreign-born residents.
According to researchers, 4 out of 5 Americans 18 and over possess medium to high proficiency in English reading and writing.
The emphasis is because “American” is not the same as “foreign-born resident”.
Man, without a Department o’Education those numbers will get worse.
