Relentless advancement to produce new gen of 
seppos
I asked Wendy if I could read the paper she turned in, and when I opened the document, I was surprised to see the topic: critical pedagogy, the philosophy of education pioneered by Paulo Freire. The philosophy examines the influence of social and political forces on learning and classroom dynamics. Her opening line: “To what extent is schooling hindering students’ cognitive ability to think critically?” Later, I asked Wendy if she recognized the irony in using AI to write not just a paper on critical pedagogy but one that argues learning is what “makes us truly human.” She wasn’t sure what to make of the question. “I use AI a lot. Like, every day,” she said. “And I do believe it could take away that critical-thinking part. But it’s just — now that we rely on it, we can’t really imagine living without it.”
How bad is AI usage and lack of literacy/reading comprehension in the global north? Is it as dire as articles like this make it out to be? I wonder how leftists in these countries will prepare for an increasingly illiterate working class that lacks the attention span to watch videos explaining theory while right-wing memes make their points in a handful of words.
literacy/reading comprehension is shockingly terrible in amerikkka, no clue about elsewhere in europe/japan/etc. however, this predates the rise of LLMs by decades, i think they have very little to do with increasing illiteracy.
honestly considering the origin story of a lot of AES I don’t think literacy is a prereq.
attention span I guess might be more of an issue, but I think deteriorating living conditions will make reality harder to ignore. I don’t really think we win by winning over an actual majority of people with reasoned argument, we win by being in the right place at the right time on the right side of declining living conditions. You need an organized core who have at least some solid basis in theory, but the broader movement around that core don’t have to already understand the theory to be on our side, though hopefully they will learn it as they go
You’re very right about literacy not being something that will majorly hinder organizing. We have a big illiteracy problem in Guatemala because a large chunk of the country still doesn’t speak or read Spanish. This still hasn’t kept our various orgs from making inroads with these communities.
I asked this question because I know countries in the global north aren’t as used to dilemmas like this and may struggle at first with finding a way around it. But it seems like I might be underestimating them.
Fair enough!
I wish that literacy and comprehension/attention spans were the biggest hurdle organizing here faced… buncha fuckin treatler settlers
We can make the same kind of propaganda for these people:
LANDLORD TAKE MONEY WITHOUT WORK
LANDLORD BAD
KILL YOUR LOCAL LANDLORD
My son is in 6th grade. He reads a lot and have kept him from device over use. He’s no unsupervised time on the Internet, appropriate for a not yet 12 year old. His teachers love me. I love them.
Doesnt mean shit though, when some other boy sneaks in a burner phone to look up porn in the bathroom and show his peers. Any kid who has unrestricted access to the internet is going to be exposed to degeneracy, and I don’t just mean the porn. My son understands screen addiction. Something I’m really proud of, but also sad about because he sees it in his peers.