In the age of fake news and alternative facts, it is easy to brand others as ignorant and stupid for holding beliefs based on asininity and irrationality. However, the absence and lacking of knowledge is not fairly portrayed by the definition of "ignore-ance" alone, the ignoring of information and data. Nor does stupidity adequately convey the problems of our societies grasp on personal expanses of knowledge.

Illiteracy is left as the only competent word to describe the problem of our society in terms of a lacking of knowledge. This is not to be mistaken and as any form of insult, given illiteracy is something we are all born with and we must all constantly work to dissolve and reverse. But the weight of ideas in the merit of their value cannot be associated with the individual producing the ideas. Not to state the origin thought process of the idea is to be removed from the usage, rather placing the legitimacy of the idea as it.

The point of recognizing illiteracy is not a means of insulting or branding with some derogatory term; it is simply the recognition of the limitations of our own knowledge. The egos of many resist recognizing this fact, and assert their opinions and commentary statements as if they have equal weight of those who contains knowledge and a level of literacy over topics at hand. Not to be mistaken with the disregarding of opinions, it must simply be recognize that the inherent right an individual has for asserting their opinion does not mean that the opinion itself as a philosophical idea that has weight in and of itself. Literacy builds the strength of ideas and the complexity of thought in which ideas form and procreate.

Self initiation of learning is the only way illiteracy can be reversed and prevented. We all must recognize when we are limited by our own thought and knowledge. We must humble ourselves to learning more about the world; to gain the complexity and the wide perspectives required to accurately and confidently deal with the situations we face in daily life, and within the greater sphere of human society and civilization.