Voices from within the academy are now raising the alarm about the decline of literacy under the relentless assault of totalized digital immersion—finally catching up to what CounterVortex blogger and ranter Bill Weinberg has been saying for years (although sneering denialism about the problem remains fashionable). Worldwide, the humanities are being abandoned in favor of STEM, while social media overtakes "legacy media" as a source of "news"—or (as is more often the case) sinister propaganda. In Episode 333 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill takes stock of this grave and still under-appreciated threat to the survival of democracy and humanity itself—and looks for signs of practical resistance.

Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.

Books discussed:

The Shallows: How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember by Nicholas G. Carr, Norton 2020

Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge from Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic by Simon Winchester, Harper Collins 2023

The Reticular Society by Ian Alan Paul, PM Press 2026

Production by Chris Rywalt

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