Even as an adult, reading through wikipedia often feels like a punch to the brain because i’m not a thesaurus rex.
rightwinger lack of education source: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/sep/29/donald-trump-still-king-poorly-educated/ ‘What is not in dispute, though, is how deeply Mr. Trump resonated, particularly among White voters without four-year college degrees, and how much it upended the political playing field.’
Wikipedians are aware that the open online encyclopedia may be too difficult, and there is a discussion of its reading level at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reading_level. Much of this discussion took place over a decade ago, but the gist is that many contributors write at or for the college level. What appeals to me most is at the end of the page, where Wikipedians are discussing accessibility and what it means to be open to all. Here’s my screenshot (in case it gets edited later).
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the wikipedia problem is a real one but to be honest, i think a more immediate problem is that right-wing media is often free (because it’s both cheap to produce, extremely profitable, and even if it isn’t has billionaires who very willingly subsidize it), and good reporting that is easier to read and challenges your worldview often is not.
As someone with major cognitive issues AND someone who wants to go into teaching, it’s so important to me personally to make sure EVERYONE can understand something. To me, if you intentionally make things difficult to understand, you’re just gatekeeping. It doesn’t help anyone.
The only time difficult things help is when you’re working through problems (like homework or classwork problems). That helps it stick as you work through it. But the actual learning before the work, that should be easy. UGH.