>>14342675Browsing 4chan, specifically quality threads, with an open yet critical mind is equivalent, if not superior, to just normal book reading. Reading a book for most ppl is simply an act of escapism into a fictional world no different than movies or video games. Ill concede that reading books is probably better than those other forms of entertainment, but thats just it, reading is an entertainment activity for most. Unless youre reading books on the hard sciences or philosophy, which includes religious texts, than youre just participating in mental masturbation. Anyone that claims superior intelligence over you or just acts smugly bc they read books is a confirmed narcissist and is much more likely devoid of any critical thinking skills at all. Reading the entire series of Harry Potter or Lord of The Rings doesn't make you some super genius. Reading shit like Kant, Kierkegaard, St. Aquinas, or Nietzsche doesn't make you the Ubermensch. You have to be able to absorb many conflicting ideas, analyze each one, and compare their core concepts against your own self-defined view of the world/life.
Back to browsing 4chan though...if you've spent any considerable amount of time lurking this site, then you inevitably have found yourself deep in the rabbit hole of a quality thread where you are reading walls of text just like this one, bombarded by a vast array of opinions and information. You then likely thought about some of these posts, perhaps even replied with your own thoughts, and thus participated in an active discussion trading critical thoughts on a specific topic, albeit in a textual, and sometimes visual format. This doesn't even account for all the links you may find or recommended side reading to look into. You could spend hours doing this in multiple threads. The point being though, is that you're probably doing much more thinking than the guy who just read A Song of Ice and Fire.
>pic rel, you when you browse 4channel 