Can’t These People Read?

BY HARRIET HALL, M.D.

I keep seeing things that make me wonder, “Can’t these people read?”

I get emails from people who say they liked what I had written about various subjects that I have never written about; for instance, food customs in other countries. Can’t these people read? What are they thinking? And when I write my weekly article for the Science-Based Medicine blog, there are always commenters who don’t read the article but just use it as an excuse to jump on their own soapbox and expound on their own pet beliefs. Fortunately, there are plenty of other commenters who don’t let them get away with it.

Perhaps my most disturbing encounter with poor reading comprehension was when I reviewed Abigail Shrier’s book Irreversible Damage for Science-Based Medicine. What I tried to say was that the science of transgender was far from settled and that Shrier had asked some good questions that deserved to be addressed with further research. I have nothing against transgender people, but it bothers me when opinions are falsely claimed to be backed up by settled science.