In which I fall to musing upon the amount of information an average reader of Charles Dickens’ novels would have been expected to possess in his own time and how it compares to that which could be assumed of us today.
In the days, months, and – God help us – perhaps even years to come, those of living in the United States are likely to see a rejection of science at the highest levels of government, in some of the most visible media outlets, and amongst not insignificant segments of the citizenry.
How much substantive news and information about our national neighbor to the south do non-Spanish speakers in the U.S. receive on a regular basis? The short answer is “not much.”