The system has been eroded by the right for a reason. The "left" are too busy pandering to a voter base that doesn't like them, so they let it happen.

An uneducated population gives the right two things, more voters due to lack of critical thinking skills and unskilled/underpaid labor. The less the voter understands the more bullshit you can feed them. Destroying education, demonizing established institutions and damning any form of knowledge is a key strategy of the right. And look, it fuckin worked. Younger kids pivoted right. The "left" keeps making excuses as to why, but it's glaringly obvious that it's their broken education. 21% of Americans are illiterate. Let that sink in.

[–] PKMKII@hexbear.net 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

First off, please refrain from using the phrase “Let that sink in” in the future. It’s cliched with heavy duty smuglord vibes.

Second, while I do think there’s a problem of willful ignorance affecting our political economy, I don’t think youth education and illiteracy are the fundamental issues. Younger generations are, relatively speaking, more likely to have college degrees or college experience. And the only youth who’ve swung right are young white men (plus youth in general are less likely to vote so it’s a murky demo to analyze). The anti-intellectual demonizing of higher education is slop for the boomers.

Likewise, illiterate people aren’t the right wing base; they’re largely non-voters and as illiteracy goes hand in hand with poverty, it’s more likely they see neither party as in their interests than siding with the right.

I think the bigger issue is that our educational system produces too many useful idiots. They can pass the standardized tests but lack the training in critical thinking to see anything past the surface level. Perfect example is the majority of Americans not understanding how marginal tax brackets work. Or just look at all the responses to the results of the election that reveal a completely inability to parse the data.

That’s the funny thing about proper leftist economy theory, it’s not especially esoteric. Most of it is common sense, you just need to think about how things work deeper that the immediate, morality play version of the analysis.