Sorry for the clickbait title. Have a blurry picture of a cat as an apology.
But as someone who does NSFW art for a living, talking to a client who reads and writes at the level of a 12 year old (and shows the same level of ignorance about the world outside their country) makes me really uncomfortable. Technically they're a legal adult, but I feel like I'm talking to a child.
I like to be friendly and pleasant with clients, but when the conversation feels like I'm explaining very basic concepts like how weather or seasons work in other countries, or how an 8 hour drive isn't shorter because we use kilometers instead of miles, it just feels wrong when paired with the adult artwork I'm also drawing for them.
Like, legally it's fine, but it does make me wonder if it is ok to draw NSFW artwork for someone who doesn't really feel like an adult intellectually.
Also #notallamericans, but I'm sure Americans on here know full well what I'm talking about, and have to deal with it a lot more frequently than I do.
EDIT: This is less supposed to be "Americans dumb" and more like "Some Americans seem to have the knowledge base of a child and that makes it hard to work with them in an adult context." I'm not just trying to start an America bashing thread here, I'm more venting about a very specific problem where I have to create adult art for adults who have the writing style and comprehension levels of children.
Legit need for (re)education. I feel that often the framework isn't there for critical thinking because it requires consideration of things outside of the self. And the rugged individualism baked into the culture triggers an instinct to withdraw in shame (or go on the defensive) from new concepts rather than accepting one's understanding might not be perfect, and acknowledging the need for growth.
Further still is the competitive mentality and need for domination; ie there is no need to engage with the global proletariat as they're our competitors for finite resources and we're obviously superior.
Then there's trauma baked into "not being good at school" because of pedagogy being punitive rather than liberating; eg better to be insular, believe oneself "dumb" and reject learning wholesale to avoid uncomfortable growth rather than acknowledging that everyone learns differently and seeing it as a collective activity where our strengths lift others.
I think to some degree its a social thing but I think no matter what critical thinking will slide off of a certain percentage of people for a wide variety of reasons, some more understandable than others. I kinda think even in a good social environment that percentage will be surprisingly high.