#reading comprehension problems

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Me when I see someone rambling negatively about a character I wrote, or making incorrect assumptions about them based on their behavior

Me when I remember they haven’t read the 100 pages of backstory on said character, watched the nonstop footage of said character’s life in my head, and are going entirely based off little crumbs I’ve shared and don’t understand the meaning of unreliable narrators

Me when I remember it’s ok to be at peace with people not liking a character I wrote, whether it’s because more hasn’t been revealed about them yet or because of their personality - because that’s how real life works too, people like some folks and don’t like others, and it means that maybe I wrote a three dimensional character

(Shoutout to @/linkeduniverse for the images)

[temperamentalaquarius]

Thinkin bout the underexplored dynamic between Dick and Jason where Dick resents Jason but NOT because Jason replaced him as Robin. Dick saw first hand what Jason's death did to Bruce(who, is indisputably the most important person breathing or otherwise to Dick). He literally never recovered. The Bruce that raised Dick is still buried in the coffin that Jason crawled out of. And yet, when Jason comes back he tries to force Bruce to sacrifice another part of himself. Less golden boy and despised usurper, it's played to death and was never accurate, more 'you killed my father in every way a person can be killed while continuing to draw breath and it still wasn't enough for you'.

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

TIL that once the Northern lords find out that Jon is Rhaegar’s son, they will detest him to the point of immediately slitting their wrists instead of accepting him as a fair and worthy leader…

….nevermind that 1) the Northern lords have thus far shown NO hostility towards Rhaegar, 2) Jon is also LYANNA STARK’s son who has thus far been romanticized to some degree, 3) Jon was raised and directly acknowledged as NED STARK’s son, the very same Ned who the mountain clans are willing to die in a raging winter for, the very same Ned whose fathering of Jon compells Alys Karstark and other minor lords to go to the Wall in search for the Lord Commander….

…none of that will ever matter. Because our headcannons dictate that Rhaegar sucks so Jon sucks ass as well, cannon be damned 🙂

[maykitz]

not to overestimate the significance of tumblr poll results but i've seen multiple on similar topics with comparable amounts of wrong answers and even discounting mischievous response it does explain why discussions on here sometimes feel like trudging through quicksand. i generally get the impression a lot of people genuinely barely grasp how statistics and percentages work and what they actually represent and how to not be misled by certain presentations of graphs. i don't mean this as a smug dunk, the [ben shapiro voice] facts and logic situation is actually a bit dire

[neurodiversitysci]

Found: A Blog Post About ADHD Readers, ADHD Writers, and Conflicting Access Needs

Why People With ADHD Write Such Long Posts (and Also Have Trouble Reading Them)

I'm pretty sure this blog post was inspired by Tumblr...

...Certainly, many people here should read it.

[thepoisonroom]

can i make a post about being irritated by antimaskers as a disabled person without annoying people trying to condescendingly explain accommodations for my disability to me! btw!

[jinsoro]

Also Toshiro didn't give up on fallin after the dragon got her, he switched parties because he figured he had a better chance of saving her with his own. What manga are people reading 😭

[oodlenoodleroodle]

"Most people are incorrectly taught from childhood that disability simply means that something is medically wrong with an individual person’s body and/or mind. Since the 1960s, disability activists and scholars across the globe demonstrated that a more accurate way to understand the lived experiences of disabled people is by using a social model. On a social model of disability, one distinguishes between a person’s impairments, the way one’s body and/or mind is different, and [a person's] disability, the social responses to one’s impairments. As the disability studies 101 example goes, you may use a wheelchair because of a spinal impairment, but what disables you is a world without ramps and lifts, with stigma and discrimination in education, labor, and so on. It was a social model understanding of disability that led to Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and that paved the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. It is not an exaggeration to say that a social model approach to disability underwrites every major legal, social, and political advance for disabled people in the US as well as across the globe. Following on the heels of such advances, research in social epidemiology, public health, and qualitative and quantitative work spanning the social sciences and humanities continues to bolster the claim that a central reason why disabled people face worse health outcomes is due in large part to socially controllable factors, as the ACDWGD report demonstrated."

Source

[sadaveniren]

I'm glad that this stunt doesn't bother you but everyone is different and it is super frustrating to basically be told 'get over it' every time stunt content comes to the forefront. Why can't we just accept that this doesn't phase some people and for others, it phases them a lot and just let both parties be.

Also, I would argue that the nature of babygate makes being appalled and disgusted by it a completely reasonable take. Personally, I don't find it to be in the same vein as other things that can easily be brushed off.

I mean if you took me saying “look into Radical Acceptance” as saying “get over it” I’m going to assume either you have shit reading comprehension or you didn’t go look what radical acceptance was. And reducing a very difficult but important skill down to “get over it” is doing no one any favors. Because for the record … “Radical Acceptance” is a literal DBT skill. It’s so much more than “get over it”

I’m gonna be very real with you - and everyone in fandom. The stunts should not bother you to a point of distress because the stunts do not involve you. If they do you need to step away. This has always been the fandom mantra. What any celebrity does in their personal life should never affect a fan that deeply. That mentality - of being so attached to celebrities that it affects your day to day mood - is partially what people are talking about when they discuss parasocial relationships.

Please note. I am not telling anyone to “get over it”. I’m not even telling anyone to not have any emotional response. But you gotta be proportional. And THATS what I was addressing when I said looking into radical acceptance.

A final note: yes bg is a unique situation to other stunts but at the end of the day it’s still just a stunt. It still does not affect us the fans. We are not going to impact babygate at all. Not our distress, not our disgust, not our attempts at boycotting. We have no power here. And that’s why I personally believe anyone who is that distressed by bg truly needs to look into something like Radical Acceptance.

[radmalenia]

If anyone on radblr has interacted with this "taythewhom" account, I would advise just try not to engage with them; because it likely won't be possible to have a productive conversation and will just piss you off.

Caution: this post is a lengthy breakdown/rant about the horrible reading abilities and the critical thought-killing mentalities of so many "TRA's", and the dangerous and tragic ramifications of being taught next to no reading and thinking skills.

TLDR: this person is a prime example of it. And the problem they have is a disturbing sign of how the education system is fundamentally failing to teach youth to read, to critically think, to stay out of echo chambers, and to know enough to articulate their stances - this is also why so many fall for trans ideology, too; and why they are more easily manipulated away from genuine feminism.

~ This is not a usual type of post for me but it brought up a couple of key things I think people need to be discussing more overall; so here goes.

So this "taythewhom" clown has bought the bullshit about radical feminists not being feminists and also about them being transphobic, and (surprise surprise) are apparently not willing to read more than one sentence at once that has been spoken by someone whom they've been told is "the enemy".

No better way to keep someone in an echo chamber, to make sure they never question or analyze their beliefs or those of anyone else; than convincing them not to read anything that a person outside of their own ideology says! Convincing them that "well this person is wrong no matter what, so you shouldn't even care to read their words"! What an unbelievably thought-killing and sheep-creating form of manipulation. Very cultish, too.

Anyway, this person suddenly DM'd me. I've seen them before in comment sections; contributing nothing and generally being shockingly dumb. I was a bit harsher overall than I maybe could have been, but it deeply frustrates me to encounter someone who has so thoroughly bought these types of thought-stopping cliches.

In this instance, they were on a "this person's apparently transphobic so don't listen to a thing they say...but yet engage with them anyway to tell them off ." (??) As it continued I got more confused by that; by why they were even in my dms at all while not willing to have an actual conversation... And wondering what do they think they get out of it. What do they think they're doing?? (I wish I'd manged to ask that!!) But the gist is that they kept insisting they didn't care to read what I was saying...yet they still kept messaging. At least for a few minutes.

And then a block? Too cowardly and/or egotistical to consider they could be wrong. To even discuss it. Notice of course how they never explained anything about what they're claiming. Never said why they say I'm transphobic. Never said why they claim radical feminism isn't feminism. NO THOUGHTS - NO CONTENT - ONLY BUZZWORDS.

They also seem to be so horrendous at reading that they saw me mention male supremacy, I presume in my bio; and somehow concluded I support it?! And that it means I want the sexes segregated?!?! How??? How are these people so quick and willing to proclaim a strong opinion on something they're literally so ignorant (and usually always wrong) on?

Even female separatism, which I fully support (but do not mention in my bio) is not a total separation of the sexes (except in an ideal and unrealistic utopia;) and even that would not be actual "segregation".

And if this person can't understand that the sentence about male supremacy in my bio is calling it the status quo that needs to be overturned by genuine feminism; then ...wow. I just don't know what's going on in schools this past decade. Why are so many of these kids unable to properly read?? 🤦‍♀️ Why are so many unable and/or unwilling to analyze something complex, or even simple - unwilling to critically think and see what conclusions they draw, to challenge their own views by analyzing a disagreeing view; to even learn enough about their own stance to articulate it beyond a basic slogan or buzzword?? Do they even know how they choose a stance? Not specifically with taythewhom but I've seen instances of other people like them admitting when questioned that they don't know why they have the stance they do, they just felt "it's what everyone else is doing" or something like that.

Like, I...cannot even imagine basing my opinions off popularity alone like that.

And honestly I do consider a large part of this person's state to be this failing of the modern public education system. For someone to call a moderate paragraph a "novel" is fucking mind-blowing. Whether you disagree with the subject or not, even if you find it totally boring; you can't call a mild size paragraph a "novel" unless something pretty bad is up with you.

No wonder these Tumblr TRA's are so often woefully uneducated about issues women face, and so woefully incapable of learning or understanding new concepts and things that they're presented with. So uneducated about how to analyze things and use critical thought. Even so uneducated about trans issues (with them often having no idea the meanings, ramifications, and realities of the trans stuff they talk about); so uneducated about gender roles and how they've been used on people, so uneducated about history (and so willing to rewrite it to fit their narrative but that's a whole different post...), so uneducated about actual feminism; about misogyny, patriarchy; about homosexuality and the gay community. So uneducated about how many of these things relate to each other, and how stuff doesn't exist in a vacuum and therefore stuff like so-called "choice feminism" doesn't work.

No wonder their reading comprehension is fucking abysmal (where does my blog say anything about sex segregation????) They either CAN'T or DON'T read...so they don't even understand the issues and stances that they're trying to support - much less the ones they've been told they're in opposition to!!

This is why we see so many of them being trans ideologists. Gender ideology necessities people who do not think, question, or read. Because as soon as one does that, it begins to fall apart.

Also - because genuine feminism ideally requires educating onself on feminist philosophy, and going on a journey through the study of feminist texts to arrive at the conclusions all of us radical feminists do, to be able to articulate these facts to others and to raise female class consciousness and have impactful discussions - it is a lot less appealing to kids who don't want to read, who don't want to think or put in effort. Who would rather be told that they can think and behave exactly how they already do, but just call it "their choice" and therefore "feminist", and be done with it. No class analysis, no understanding of the way males oppress them specifically because of their sex and have done so for hundreds even thousands of years; no - that requires long paragraphs, and very heavy subject matter.

To be clear I do truly empathize with young women feeling turned away by how heavy it is emotionally to face and accept the actual realities of their oppression...the realities of who does it, how severe and all encompassing it is; the reality of what it is based upon. It is a horrible thing to face; and once you've seen it you can never stop seeing it. It permeates everything around us in our entire culture, it overshadows and undertones everything and every situation and etc etc etc. But - to use the overdone matrix analogy - would you rather take the blue pill to make you forget that you ever peaked behind the curtain, or would you rather take the red pill that shows you the grim truth in full - and live the rest of your life in proud resistance against the oppressive force? That red pill is what radical feminists all choose...and it is certainly worth it emotionally.

(NOT to be confused with the fucking "red pill" that far-right males sometimes refer to!! They have entirely different views from radfems, this cannot be overstated - and their "red pill" views of hateful misogynistic nonsense; and often of other hateful and stupid views like antisemitism or homophobia; are entirely incorrect. The ONLY similarity is the matrix pill analogy itself.)

Anyway... going back to the younger people who won't read. They don't read and they don't think. And it considerably contributes to keeping them inside an echo chamber as well, as I'm sure one can understand - if they read nothing from the outside, they've obviously been successfully placed in an echo chamber where they just keep supporting and agreeing with their own stances...which again are often so shallow because they don't even flesh out what they're supposed to believe in themselves.

This is also so concerning for so many reasons; I've already glossed over some and am sure I don't need to list them all... Essentially - being able to read, to effectively properly read and do the thinking that comes with it; is SO DAMNED IMPORTANT. Being able to read multiple paragraphs is VITAL. Books are vital, for a start. If you want to have a stance about a serious and complex issue, for example feminism; you need to be able to read books, studies, articles, news reports, and complex discussion threads. Otherwise you have your stance in name only, with no substance behind your label; and so it would be more beneficial if you don't say a word in these discussions and debates and instead let the people who can actually read and learn and think and speak do the reading, learning, thinking, and speaking...otherwise you'd just be derailing the conversation and adding pointless or even detrimental words.

Like taythewhom does in the notes on multiple feminist posts I've seen 🙃 and they don't mean well at all, certainly not when it comes to women's rights. It's people like this who turn the word "transphobia" meaningless - and into a joke or even into a compliment, depending on context.

Anyway, to wrap this up; while this is a post about the importance of being able to read well (and that's still undeniably true), I admit this also has a level of irony because it is somewhat longer than it needs to be. However there are multiple places where I could have brought up other topics and tangents that were relevant, though - so is it really longer than necessary?? To me that's an incredibly cool thing about writing; no matter what you're discussing there are so many ways you could expand upon what you're saying if you were so inclined to. And how abundantly rich the world is with subject matter is something everyone deserves to be able to access and experience; and the way the school system is degrading the literary level of children is just so tragic and disgusting for so many reasons.

Well - if you made it this far through my 4am adderall comedown vent; congratulations, I think - and thank you! ADHD, which I have, is often awful to live with - but sometimes it can be very handy; although not always in the most productive manner.

Reading and writing are a never-ending source of enrichment, intrigue, revelation and knowledge; and the last one in particular can easily be your greatest source of personal power. All of them lead to personal growth, so don't neglect them. To be a little petty - the moral of this post is, in its simplest terms...be a reader - don't be taythewhom.

[adhdblues]

I went many years not realising that something was wrong with me.

Many years of thinking that how I feel and how I process things was normal. Everyone experiences similar things, is what I thought.

School was okay. I ended up with good grades in the end - A, A, B for A-levels.

But I didn’t realise that I was struggling to understand textbook language. I didn’t know that comprehension of that type of text could be a learning disability. I just thought I wasn’t good enough.

I never really did any work in class. I was actively involved in discussions. Always had an idea to share, and my teachers seemed to really enjoy those discussions. But putting them on paper was fucking hard.

And the research never really got any deeper than the ‘contents’ page and half of the ‘introduction’ of a book. I had piles and piles of books to look through, they all intrigued me. But they just sat there, in a pile, looking cute.

They sat there as the guilt (of not reading through them) weighed on me more as deadlines got closer.

If we had to take notes in class, I wasn’t able to focus. Notes were mandatory, as per my teachers’ expectations - that’s the only way they’d know whether we are concentrating or not. But, I would leave the classroom feeling like I didn’t learn anything that day, because it was all too fast.

Now I know why.

I knew I was smart (sometimes I truly believed that), and I knew I could understand everything that was communicated to me verbally. But the classroom setting just wasn’t right.

I never thought that I’d be one to have ADHD, or that disability they called dyslexia. It felt so foreign, so out of reach - I shouldn’t even consider it because I don’t need the help, is what I thought.

I needed that help.

I never thought I deserved extra time during exams - even though I never fucking finished my papers. No matter how fast I tried to get through the questions, I always had 3 or 4 or 5 pages left once the time was up.

I was actually never told about such things existing, I didn’t know what ‘accommodations’ were. Not until I saw a handful of classmates sitting in a separate room, taking the exams at a different time to us. But still, no one really talked about it.

I just wish that my school, one of the ‘best British schools in the country’, would take learning disabilities more seriously.

I wish they had taken the time to educate us about such things, instead of telling us off for the eyeliner or nail polish we wore.

Instead of giving us detention for wearing pants tighter than their liking.

Or the assemblies they forced us to sit through, where they would bring in alumni to talk about all the amazing things they had achieved since they left school.

If only I had been told about what learning disabilities were:

- I would have struggled less in GCSE.

- I wouldn’t have had those multiple breakdowns because I thought I was stupid.

- I wouldn’t have thought that I wasn’t good enough.

I was always so intrigued by learning new things. But the classroom setting just wasn’t right. The teachers never came to me to ask why I’m struggling, they came to me to tell me I wasn’t good enough.

My biology teacher said she’d be surprised if I get a C. Out loud. In front of the whole class. As she gave out our mock exam results.

I got an A in biology when the real exam came around. Because I studied my ass off. At home. In my own space.

She did nothing to help me.

My math teacher told the whole class that I got the lowest score in my mock exam. I wasn’t there, but my classmates told me. It was embarrassing. I fucking cried. But now that I look back, it’s because I couldn’t understand textbook language at the speed they wanted me to.

I got an A in that too, when the exam actually mattered.

I never really cared much for mock exams. They didn’t mean anything towards my final grades, or my future. I couldn’t care less and they didn’t deserve the stress I’d have to go through.

I just knew I would study for the real exams. I knew I could pull all-nighters and study better under pressure.

Now I know why.

I would wonder why it was so hard for me to keep up with deadlines. I would think that maybe I just don’t care enough. But I kind of did, because I enjoyed learning. I enjoyed discussing and sharing ideas.

But the school system just wasn’t right.

I look back and wonder what it would have been like if I got the extra help that I needed. If I knew I was dyslexic, maybe my English teacher wouldn’t always make me read out loud to the class “to help with my reading skills”.

That was torture for me and everyone else involved - (I think she enjoyed seeing students struggle though).

I remember I specifically went and asked her to stop making me read out loud. Because I felt ashamed of all the long pauses, when I couldn’t find the line I was on. Or for saying the wrong thing, or pronouncing the words wrong. I was ashamed that everyone had to listen to me struggle, because I thought I was wasting their time.

She asked me to read to the class, that same day.

[domeniudulce]

We may Dollcourse here and there. We may Gehrmaria debate every so often. Heck, we might even fight over the actual political intrigue and contentious in-universe matters of the game every so often, but that's what families do! We all know the real enemy: Iosefka truthers.

[longing-for-rain]

Hey everyone!

I’m here to invade your favorite ship’s tag to let you know I’m a multishipper! This means that I passively and uncritically enjoy everything that crosses my screen, so I’m better than all of you with your silly little tastes and preferences.

Now, your ship isn’t my favorite, but I can *wrinkles nose* sometimes tolerate it even though I like other ships a lot better. But I am here, in your ship’s tag, to scold you for not liking other ships. Disliking something and *gasp* talking about it on your own blog makes you a bad person! Unlike me, who likes everything, because I’m too spineless to form solid opinions of my own.

I know you’re going to get mad at me for posting this in your ship’s tag, but that’s just proof that you’re a toxic fan. You should be just like me. I’m a multishipper and I’m such a nice person, because I’m respectful of fictional characters (not real people though, they don’t matter).

(By the way I’m better than you. I’m a multishipper)

Now I’m just going to go ahead and tag every ship I can think of, so that as many people as possible can be exposed to my enlightened perspective that they definitely wanted to see. Only multishippers will understand. We’re the purest of all fans and better than you. But because I told you that I’m a nice and respectful person, that means that I am so arguing with me is basically bullying. Here, have a condescending smiley face as a token of my self righteous attitude :)

[monstermoviedean]

it's funny to think that reading is one of the only skills i have ever consistently had and yet this website makes me question daily whether or not i can, in fact, read

[theshadowsingersraven]

*me, explaining on reddit how Azriel and Elain not getting together still can amount to a satisfying story arc in which they both realize they aren't good for each other based on the behaviors Azriel has displayed and what Elain wants and need, but still grow separately from each other because of the relationship they developed, even if shallow, crumbling*

the e/riel on the other side of the discussion: "Also, if it pans out the way you’ve said with as being incredibly toxic and no better than Tamlin why would he deserve anyone?"

Tell me you don't see these characters independently of their ship without telling me you don't see them independently of their ship.

[remnantglow]

I've been writing my own sci-fi universe on and off after new Trek disappointed me, and has continued to disappoint me. If I had to sum it up it would be Star Trek but more overtly communist and also military sci-fi. I've mainly been inspired by things I've read/played/watched, which has mainly been made by white or western creators, so I wanted to ask if you had any recommendations for sci-fi made by POC creators to broaden my horizons.

omg of course!!! (with the caveat that unfortunately non-Western scifi specifically is a bit of a blindspot for me, so most of these will be Western authors of colour)

Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (& i recommend reading the complete trilogy - imo it works best read together as one whole)

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color ed. by Nisi Shawl

How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin

I'm Waiting for You and Other Stories by Kim Bo-Young

And 2 that i personally haven't read yet but i think NEED to be mentioned, especially if we're talking space stories:

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (also military scifi!)

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

also, short story anthologies!!! if you're looking for new authors or want to explore works from a specific culture/place, they're a great way to do that. here's a couple from my own reading list for this year:

Palestine + 100: Stories from a Century after the Nakba

Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction

Readymade Bodhisattva: The Kaya Anthology of South Korean Science Fiction

Sinopticon: A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction

& finally, i don't really watch a lot of tv/movies, but i do wanna wholeheartedly recommend:

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Janelle Monáe's Dirty Computer (free on youtube and an absolutely top tier example of afrofuturism)

Nope

They Cloned Tyrone