The Free Range Horse and American Literacy

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you news of an extinction crisis—not of a noble species but of something far rarer in these modern times: common sense.

Free-range horses are under siege, not merely by the relentless march of human encroachment but by an equally insidious adversary—”garbage-redneck-science.” The term, which I believe is the polite way of saying “a heap of nonsense wrapped in a cowboy hat,” has been trotted out over the last 20 or 30 years to argue against every credible, evidence-backed fact concerning these majestic creatures.

Allow me to put this predicament into perspective: the scientific literacy rate in America hovers around a stunning 28 percent. That is to say, nearly three out of four adults struggle to comprehend the science section of The New York Times—and if you’ve ever read it, you’ll know it’s not written in the hieroglyphics of advanced quantum mechanics.

By this measure, it is not just free-range horses endangered but the ability to tell the difference between a research paper and a rodeo program. Social media, that great modern marketplace of ideas (and bad ones), has only deepened the crisis.

Here, facts are not so much debated as they are shouted down, often by individuals armed with an internet connection, a dubious YouTube video, and a hearty disdain for anyone who uses the word “data.” These online tribes, fueled by their echo chambers, have perfected the art of “Push Back”—a phenomenon where evidence is met not with thoughtful consideration but with a collective sneer and the kind of reasoning that might make a parrot blush.

Meanwhile, free-range horses are getting pushed closer to the brink. Population stress and habitat destruction are not matters of opinion but statistical realities. And yet, as their numbers dwindle, a considerable portion of the populace remains convinced that the science is flawed—or worse, a conspiracy cooked up by the horses themselves, no doubt, to take over prime grazing real estate.

But I digress. The state of literacy in this country only adds to the calamity. While a respectable 79 percent of adults are literate by definition, more than half read below a sixth-grade level, and a fifth of the population struggles to distinguish “fiction” from “nonfiction” without consulting the movie poster. How, then, can we expect nuanced debates about ecological crises when the average citizen is just as likely to argue with gravity as they are with natural science?

If this trajectory is not corrected, the free-range horse is doomed. The extinction of a species is a grave loss, but perhaps the greater tragedy is that the battle for their survival could be lost, not on the plains, but in the comments section of social media, where truth goes to die, and the hashtag roams free.

It seems the free-range horse and rational thought share a similar fate. Both are rare, both are magnificent, and both are teetering on the edge of survival.