You haven’t been looking very hard I gather. There are numerous studies done on the benefits of reading, you could use your preferred search engine to read a few of them perhaps.

Those sure are some labyrinthine sentences you managed to conjure up there. Now, if only I didn’t find the task so boring, perhaps I might be able to untangle a coherent thought or two, who knows?

The idea that “Oh, if all the morons likely to believe facist ideology are just taught Hamlet, it will all be okay”

Well, of course nobody said that, it’s a gross oversimplification of my argument - a strawman - which I guess is very fitting in this context.

This is a naive position. In a class society, the upper classes see to it that their kids get educated. If you’re the daughter of an AC repairman, and you like books with weird words in them, your chances to have a career in the field where you would thrive are slim to none. The best way to counter this is to offer a lot of education, to everyone, not just to the people “with a good head for reading” that just happens to also all have rich parents. For this noble cause, taking the risk that a few kids might be bored for a few hours seems like a reasonable prize to pay. You never know what kid is going to respond to what subject, this is why a broad education is important.

No one is arguing that. Less-dumbed-down, thoughtful and well-formulated arguments and debates would benefit everyone, though. Especially if the audience is educated enough to be able to appreciate them.

So your argument is politics should be cartoonish, stylized and theatrical instead of nuanced and actually constructive? Congratulations, you got your wish. Just be sure to make the most of it before the masters of simplification and emotionally charged language - the fascists - take over, it’s just a matter of time I guess.

Not really. My point is, it’s very easy to dismiss something you have no knowledge or experience of. And I try to avoid doing that because it just contributes to the noise (I’m sure I don’t always succeed). But I don’t think it’s a good thing if reading comprehension and general language skills decrease in general, do you? Do you think people think more clearly, are able to argue their case better or identify disinformation more accurately if they don’t know as many words or how to use them?

Well, let me put it this way then: with your strategy, in 50 years there will be no one left alive who would be able to use or understand the word labyrinthine.

Society is a lot more than just work though - and I’d argue it’s the least interesting part - but yes, if you’re going to communicate with people, verbally or in writing, it’s going to be beneficial to you in your line of work.

But how about being able to understand other people and the world around you better and perhaps contribute to it? Be able to involve yourself in the democratic process perhaps or otherwise benefit your community? I could go on and on, but who cares about any of that anymore, right?

olden days

Sheesh, it’s not even a hundred years old yet.

For a reader who likes weird books it isn’t boring. For someone required to endure it as part of a class and wants to go to a good school to become a marine biologist or chemistry major, it’s very boring.

So there you have your answer why we can’t all collectively agree that it’s boring. Some people like it and/or get something out of reading it.

You could say the same about anything that requires effort, like learning a programming language for example. Of course a lot of people are going to find it boring and obtuse - but no one questions why it’s sometimes a requirement to learn it. That being said, I doubt aspiring marine biologists are being forced to read Finnegans Wake in particular.

I don’t value “art” as anything higher than other forms of entertainment

I see. And why should we care about your uninformed opinion?

For many people, reading is boring.

And sometimes it’s the role of education to expose students to things they benefit from but wouldn’t necessarily seek out on their own. Reading comprehension and use of language is a vital skill to function as an adult in society, and to acquire that you need to read, a lot. Short texts, long texts, different styles, poetry, prose, etc. There’s really no way around it.

It’s a lot of things, but definitely not boring…

Thankfully it’s obvious from your comment that you are deeply familiar with the canonical works of world literature, otherwise one might think that you were denouncing thousands of years of linguistic artistry without any real knowledge or insight into the subject.

And were there no consequences for not doing the assignment?

Well, maybe it’s a book that they think someone who is looking to “maximise their reading potential” have heard of and might consider it beneficial to have read. Idk why you wouldn’t just watch the movie and lie about reading it at that point, but…well.

Well, perhaps that process would be more difficult and resource-intensive in this hypothetical scenario, so it would be much easier and less hassle to just keep the bodies alive?

Which is fa-ur

That might also be true. You never know.

Apps are challenging to preserve, but it’s the MMORPGs and online games that are almost impossible since there is no game without active servers and people playing the game. Hardware can be emulated and code preserved, so the apps you’re talking about could be preserved IF Apple, Google et al wanted to - which of course probably won’t happen, but still.