Okay, I might be behind on this, but oh the fuckity fuck well.
Seriously, what the shit is up with this
http://www.dontread.org deal? This is really some fucked up shit. I've seen some of their ads on reputable sites, and for christ's sake, one of their advertisements is on the LA motherfucking Times. Yes, a newspaper. Does anyone know what you do with newspapers? Where was the ball dropped on /that/ quality check?
But anyway, this Don't Read campaign is one of the most retarded ideas I've ever heard of. Don't read. Yes, remember that fear plaguing the 80s (at least, I remember it being worst in the 80s) about how children were reading less and less, choosing to rot their brains in front of the boob tube all day? What brought about the 180-degree turn, where anyone thinks it's RIGHT to read less? People today have piss-poor grasps on their native language as it is, thinking it fine to abbreviate two-letter words and relying on overused acronyms to communicate whatever gutter smegma bounces around in their hollow little skulls. Thinking about it, I bet the people in question wouldn't even know what an acronym is without pounding answers.com.
Jesus christ. It's good that they're wanting to sell their product, you know; everyone's entitled to do so. Their saving grace is, at the bottom of their (small) FAQ, is that they say that reading and writing skills are important. That's true, people shouldn't be allowed to leave elementary school without being able to read properly. Hell, I'd stop them at third grade if they don't understand the use of colons and parentheses. However, to make an ad campaign reading as if to want people to stop reading books and articles entirely? That just smacks of ignorance and unimaginativeness. Isn't half the pleasure in reading books imagining your own voices and visuals? Do we really need the droning of anyone in our ear to offer his own emphasis where he may think it's necessary, completely stripping the need to choose what's important and what's simply fluff?
Yeah, fine. Okay, don't read. Learning numerous new words and knowing how to CORRECTLY spell them is unimportant. After all, most people spell 'foneticly', right? Jackasses.