#youve been traumatized into hating reading and it makes you easier to oppress

[soracities]

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]

[soracities]

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]

[soracities]

"Conclusions: reading, then, is a crucial act of resistance.

Not the only way, or the primary way, but a mode of literacy we must not negate or shy away from. Reading and writing are disciplines distinct from other forms of literacy: aural and oral proficiency (speaking and listening), media literacy (video watching, noticing), financial literacy, social literacy, numerical literacy (shoutout to the baddies with math anxiety rooted in the same oppressive upbringings). There are histories, blueprints, stories we can only access through the pages they’ve been printed on. If that was not important, we would not lock university libraries behind several hundred thousand dollars paywalls. If there was not agency and power to be found in reading, the empire would not work so hard to burn your hands away. If video learning is truly as harmless and neutral as we think, why are there screens everywhere in this world? Why are there so much advertisements, so much incentives, to spend all day looking at someone else making you feel?

—Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack (bolded italics my edit)

[soracities]

"I am here to be educative. I want you to remember that I am a person with very specific lenses on the world. I want you to remember that everything about our current existence in the Anthropocene (as in, a human-sovereign world) is intentional and by design. The Anthropocene is intentional and by design. Someone(s) made all this up. World-making is an intentional and detail-oriented process; what can be made can be remade, over and over again."

—Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack

[soracities]

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]

[jennysparksandtheauthority]

A battle for the soul of humanity. If we lose critical thinking, we’ll lose everything.

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]

[prototypesteve]

Ismatu Gwendolyn’s essay is the most important thing you will read this year.

I say that knowing that this is a very big year full of very big stuff. If you believe this is an important year in an important moment, then read Ismatu Gwendolyn’s essay, linked above.

The tiny little screencap is not the essay. The essay is all about how our tiny little screencaps world is a form of control. I won’t summarize the essay, because I don’t hate you.

(And yes, the essay addresses the impact ADHD, ASD, and dyslexia have on reading, but it also addresses the impact reading has on dyslexia, ASD, and ADHD.)

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]

[angstitty]

PLEASE go listen to some of Ismatu Gwendolyn’s podcasts episodes, they read their essays out loud in a very understandable manner, speak about activism, education, literature, culture, society and such subjects.

Threadings on Spotify

Their website

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]

[repeatogirl]

Original link was broken, here is an updated one (as of February 5, 2025): https://www.threadings.io/youve-been-traumatized-into-hating/

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]