FYI this was written by Chris Hedges, the same guy who wrote the book War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning. I only mention it because it's a really good book.

That said, his literacy statistics come from Gatto's analysis for the 1993 NALS, even though there was a new one released just a couple years ago. And also, his other literacy stats come from here:

http://bookstatistics.com/sites/para/resources/statistics.cf...

While these numbers are probably roughly correct, and I have cited them myself in the past, they really do need to be verified.

"Millions of Americans live in a non-reality-based belief system informed by childish clichés - they can barely differentiate between lies and truth."

True, on both sides of the left/right divide!

Agreed - the assertions without sources caused me to question the entire article.

"80% of families didn't buy a book last year." Doubt it.

According to the report Reading At Risk, 56.6% of the adult population read at least one book. Thus for that 80% statistic to be true, the majority of those who read a book would have either had to get it from the library, a friend, or have already owned it.