Depends what they replace reading with. Many of those people who have literally never read a single story since they've left high school have replaced that with spending time on twitter or other social media, and get all their news from their "friends' " hearsay.
If the only things available to read are propaganda, then I agree with you. But if not, if it can still get them exposed to heroic characters and different perspectives, then having a generation of children become functionally illiterate just seems like a loss of potential.
Of course, in this scenario I was speaking only of children and their specific book reading. I don't know how it is now, but back when I was in public education we had expectations and programs that required you to be reading at least a few books a year.
And once they limited that from "anything in the library or good enough for a book report" to "only approved by the system literature" we all just stopped reading most books beyond the barest minimum with a skim to pass. I kept reading on my own like a nerd, but most didn't and won't.
Which failed on multiple levels, but would absolutely shoot the "groom them into being easy prey for pedos and trannies" plan in the foot because no reading at all defaults them back to instincts. Which would reject those things anyway.
Depends what they replace reading with. Many of those people who have literally never read a single story since they've left high school have replaced that with spending time on twitter or other social media, and get all their news from their "friends' " hearsay.
If the only things available to read are propaganda, then I agree with you. But if not, if it can still get them exposed to heroic characters and different perspectives, then having a generation of children become functionally illiterate just seems like a loss of potential.
Of course, in this scenario I was speaking only of children and their specific book reading. I don't know how it is now, but back when I was in public education we had expectations and programs that required you to be reading at least a few books a year.
And once they limited that from "anything in the library or good enough for a book report" to "only approved by the system literature" we all just stopped reading most books beyond the barest minimum with a skim to pass. I kept reading on my own like a nerd, but most didn't and won't.
Which failed on multiple levels, but would absolutely shoot the "groom them into being easy prey for pedos and trannies" plan in the foot because no reading at all defaults them back to instincts. Which would reject those things anyway.