I found out some interesting information today that their history they are taught is highly biased and they are only allowed to read it from certain authors for their school work/study

#fakehistory

Literacy rates can be deceiving. Comprehension and retention are the important elements. What good does it do to be able to read if one doesn't understand what was read or remember it more than five minutes? I would venture to say that if one lacks those two qualities, then they can't read. In the United States it has been my experience, based upon my criteria, that a large percentage of the population is unable to read.

About 30 yrs ago little tikes toy company had to change their instruction for putting toys together from a 12th grade reading level to a 10th grade reading level. They stated the reason as 70% of the US population has a less then a 10th grade reading level.And they all voted for Trump

Lots of reading comprehension issues. (IMHO)

about 14% of Americans are functionally illiterate

if we couldnt read how would we answer that question on this site?

I think what you might have seen was the rise in aliteracy. Aliteracy is when you can read but do not want to use it.

The US public school system was designed to hold kids back and make sure they can't read phonetically. I used to substitute teach in two eastern Kentucky counties during the 90s. Most of the people, students and teachers could barely read, and avoided it. I used to sneak in a quick class after their assigned "busy work" was finished, to teach the kids to both read phonetically and speed read in 10-20 minutes, using song and color to access the right hemisphere of the brain. I found that all kids learned to read and speed-rapidly, including preschoolers and "special education" kids, since the right side of their brains didn't appear affected.

My 6 year old grandson can read quite well. I think kids get a significantly better education now than they did when I was growing up. They don’t teach religion in puplic schools here. If you want your kids to have religious indoctrination you have to send them to a private school.

Can't read, don't read, and poor reading comprehension, are three entirely different things. Some people are illiterate. Some are barely literate. Perhaps, if we spent more money on education, stopped textbooks from being published in Texas, got all religious influences out of public schools, and had more parents who were actively engaged in their children's education, this would become less of an issue. Adherence to religion encourages a lack of education. The smarter people become, the easier it is to see through the lie of religion.

Some posts cannot be read in some countries because of copyright laws or court rulings (suppression orders).

Can't read as in not understanding the marks on the page or more like having trouble with reading comprehension? Most seem to be able to read words off a page just fine but I question the comprehension skills of many people.

They can read....same as u and I....my friend is a teacher who teaches English learning support for middle school students....and she can read just fine....I suppose u’ll find that some are illiterate....same as the U.K.....Europe and the rest of the world....

I can't understand what this post says.

I read quite a bit and many of my friends are also well read, but I know people that only read technical books and never read for fun.

There are those who can and some who can't. I have no idea how the ones who can't manage to get by... then again, there are Americans eating Tide pods.

Sort of true. I have a 10th grade literacy. Technical journals scare the heck out of me.

In all seriousness, some American's really can't read. Or they just fail to read articles and like jumping to conclusions and shit instead. For example, the article about the wife and husband who the wife missed the pregnancy photo shoot so the husband showed up instead and showed off his food belly (being bloated from eating a lot basically) and people assumed it was a female to male transition that got pregnant and there was sooo much hateful shit and comments. They thought it had to do with transitioning from one sex to the other, but that wasn't the case at all, it was just a funny thing the husband did!

I think the problem isn't that they cannot read, it is that they cannot read critically. Words and sentences mean practically nothing if you cannot interpret what is trying to be presented and make evaluations based on previous learnings and experience. Reading is "Tell me, I'll forget." Critical reading is "Involve me, I'll understand." Somewhere in between the two is "Show me, I'll remember", which is where I see the "average" American. Able to listen and maybe comprehend, and thus have an opinion, but unable to evaluate and apply experience and other relevant data. So somewhere along the way they receive an opinion or perception (church, media, peers, family, whatever) but they are unable to process new or conflicting information and get stuck in a rut that leaves no way out towards growth and better understanding.

About 14% of Americans have what is termed a "below basic" literacy level. Those of us who comment here are not in that group.