to think some people can't read?

[SomeoneElseEntirelyNow]

Caveat - I proofread and edit for a living, so this is a particular bugbear of mine.

Literally every thread I've been on today has been derailed by someone making a statement that is clearly contradicted by information from the OP, or jumping down the throat of a PP because of something they never wrote, or asking questions that are already answered, and then getting their knickers in a twist about it.

I can understand skim reading, i do it myself, but if you're going to start hurling invective at strangers online, surely you'd double check what you've chosen to get mouthy about first? Or are the type of people who froth at the mouth over things that are nothing to do with them just not that good at reading comprehension?

COVID

YANBU

Lol. You might find you want to give public forums a miss. 😂

You'd think so but a lot of people don't. A bit the like the people in real life who will state something with utter conviction, often aggressively, but never fact check first.

I have opinions but if I'm going to state something as fact I check I'm right and often find it's not that simple.

These types of people will also almost never admit they are wrong and carry on in their state of self assured righteousness.

Yabu. Its clearly your turn to wash up

Why do you leave the dishes to someone else?

Notice how I didn't actually address your point or answer any of your questions....

How long have you been here?

This is one of the first things you notice on MN. At first it is very annoying - but after the first 5 years or so you start to not care so much

@Mumdiva99 you may be right, although I have managed to get the urge to weep at incorrect your/you're, there/their/they're, to/too/two under control, thanks to Mumsnet, so I'm hopefully becoming a better person and less of a grammar freak, but the reading comprehension issue I just can't get past!

I've done this a lot recently. Totally misread a thread. Commented and then gone "oh fuck". COVID-19 brain is making me crazy, nearly every work email I write needs rewriting in order to make sense.

@Laiste not long, FTM and victim of extreme lockdown boredom. This place is worse than reddit for this sort of thing, and I never thought I'd be able to say that about anywhere!

It’s becoming more commonplace right across MN for people to misquote, twist and change things to suit their own agenda and then to jump on another poster. I’m sure it’s becoming worse, it used to be only AIBU that was harsh but it’s across all boards now.

‘Literally every thread I've been on today has been derailed by someone making a statement that is clearly contradicted by information from the OP’

I’ll say YANBU if you promise that you’re not mis-using the word literally, as that is my bugbear.

Personally the thing that STILL does piss me off after 12 years is people commenting on threads 50+ posts long without reading anything except the OP!! Even the original posters updates.

Especially on what are obviously sensitive subjects.

Cancel the cheque!

@Perisoire i wish i was! Unfortunately not, I literally mean literally.

(O god i join you with the bugbear there too, last week I was in the Co-op queue 2m behind a teenage girl on her phone, she said the words "i know right, i literally died" and i very nearly fainted from the effort it took to proclaim her the second coming of Jesus Christ, or the start of the zombie apocalypse, or both)

Yanbu. It's fine if people apologise when they realise they've made a mistake but they rarely do!

It’s becoming more commonplace right across MN for people to misquote, twist and change things to suit their own agenda and then to jump on another poster.

I've noticed it happening more and more everywhere, not just on MN.
Perhaps the media have always done this but it's more blatant now. Next time there's a big news story read the Guardian and the Mail and see the different ways they twist facts, ignore those that don't fit and cherry pick what to highlight to suit their agenda.

*to NOT proclaim her, etc

How embarrassing. My kingdom for an edit button.

There are people who are not very good at reading. I've certainly had adults come ask me to read something to them, often a confidential letter, or a letter that they think might be confidential which turns out not to be. (This isn't part of my job, but because of my job people rightly assume I can keep a confidence, read well and explain long words if needed.)
I suspect what you are describing sometimes has little to do with reading comprehension and quite a lot to do with the way some people like to test or assert their power against other people. "The truth is what I say it is." Sometimes this can be a sort of emotional abuse and seems to happen regardless of income level and almost regardless of educational level (Excepting the extremes, with educational level, perhaps). It also seems to occur regardless of age and irrespective of gender. (MIL, possibly a certain POTUS.) I can totally understand why it gets your goat though. I think that's what it is meant to do.
People assigning the wrong statement to the wrong user name would be a different matter though.

YANBU OP. It's mental!

It’s not necessarily not reading, sometimes it’s people being pig headedly wedded to their own agenda and perspective.

I remember being on one of the MM threads once and someone posted something like, “There are plenty of legitimate criticisms to make about Meghan and I’ve criticised her plenty myself but some of the more extreme vitriol feels at least partially racial” and someone quoted it screaming the usual nonsense about “oh so you’re claiming no one is allowed to ever criticise a non-white woman or it’s racist!!” Like the exact opposite to what the quoted post had said. That’s happened several times in those threads.

I see that a lot on MN in all sorts of subjects. Posters will be so wedded to arguing the point they want to argue they don’t care what the other person actually said. A lot of the more heated threads here end up feeling like two people both living out arguments they’re having in their own heads.

People read what they wish had been written, not what was actually written.

@chocolatelyasfuck i think you've hit the nail on the head there.

You are definitely not being unreasonable.

I can sort of get it sometimes if it's a long post but i've seen hundreds over the years like this:

DS is 7 and I'm running out of ideas for lunches for school. He likes cheese, crudites, ham, chicken and sweet spreads but is allergic to egg.

Replies: how old is he? What kind of things does he like? How about a boiled egg chopped up? 😂