#@ my very facetious brother who has not critical thinking skills whatsoever and purposely acts facetious to be an asshole

[valentinesforensics]

-vent (kind long sorry, feel free to skip I'm just fuming rn. Its nothing bad im just frustrated over lack of critical thinking skills)

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Angry at how proud some people act about their lack of critical thinking skills and their inability to analyze and use reasoning on writing.

Yes these are things you have to learn, these are skills that you have to practice and build up over time. Some people are lucky and Privilaged to have a good education or background that teaches them these skills, and some dont.

Nothing grinds my gears more than a person Who had all the chances and ability in the world to learn critical thinking skills and literary skills and just throws it out the window and acts like a sanctimonious asshole about it.

"The curtains are just blue ahaha stupid English teacher"

"Why doesn't the author just say what they mean, symbolism and metaphors are useless"

Literature is important, it's a part of culture and education, and emotion and so many things. Some Literature is meant to be a work of art, some is meant to be a comment of different aspects of society or culture. It's not just books either, word of mouth stories or songs or poetry and so many other are just as important

Some people do not have the privilege and chances in life to write or read or learn about literature in a way some people get to. Not every one gets to go to school and go to a class to be taught. Not everyone gets the chance to read a bunch of books or literature, some people can't even read at all.

And then you get some assholes who do get the chances to have all these things, and they just...... throw it out the window and act "holier than thou" about it.

I'm not here to tell you all writing and literature is the bestest purest thing in the world, and your a lesser person for not being a reader or only reading certain typea of writing, nothing like that.

But damn, some people be out here acting like only reading Coffee shop AU's fanfiction makes you a self-righteous, god amongst mortals.

Reading fanfiction is fine, writing fanfiction is fine, liking stuff that's just fluff is fine. Even I love a bit of self-indulging fanfic to brighten my day

- (shout out to fanfic writers who write stuff i can relate too and enjoy, and try to be diverse in their writing so more people can enjoy, I love you forever and ever and ever)

But I'm begging some people especially the intensely online people, to learn to at least appreciate that literature and writing is more than just feel-good fluff that's "pure" all the time.

You don't have to read that stuff if you don't want to, that's okay, but at least have the understanding that there's more out there and just because something isn't hyper-sanitized, doesn't mean it's a bad peice of literature.

Some writing sucks, some have bad or harmful ideas, some have questionable intentions. Having critical thinking and reading skills is so important, so that you can read something and understand what the author is intending. Maybe the message is good, or bad, or neither.

Maybe it's something that initially sounds good, but when you look below the surface it's saying something else. You need these important skills to be able to understand the intention of the author.

Learning about pathos, ethos, and logos is important. Authors will use these to convey a message, but they will also use these to sway your opinions. Understanding when and how they are being used, and being able to identify them is so important. You got to be able to understand why the author is using this, and what they intend to get out of you for it.

It's so important especially if you spend alot of time online. Information is shared at light speed, and tons of stuff is constantly being thrown at your face. Some of it will be fluff, but not all of it will be. There will be Information, and misinformation, and a whole lot of ideas. Some might be harmful or very swaying.

If you have no critical thinking skills, and you take everything said to you at face value, or Inherently "right" or "wrong" based on what someone else says to you, you're setting yourself up to believe In some things, that maybe you don't even believe in personally. Or can even be harmful to you or others. But you just took it at face value and decided it was perfectly fine, and only later when it blows up in your face do you realize, hmm maybe should've spent a little more time on that one.

I don't know if critical thinking skills have become worse in modern time, or if it's the same and the widespread quickness of the internet has simply made it more noticeable, but none the less, it's highly frustrating and very concerning.

So anyways, one little peice to end my vent.

If the author tells you the curtains are blue, don't only ask what it means, also ask why the author is telling you this, ask why they decided to use curtains, and ask what they get out of telling you this.

Being able to do this will keep yourself safe, and help lessen the spread of misinformation.

And if anyone ever tells you "it's not that deep don't look into it" maybe you should double check to see why they're so insistent on it not being looked into.

-vent over