"Recently I asked ChatGPT Pro—which I paid for to summarize financial spreadsheets; I’m not a hater—whether it was capable of viciously dismantling an argument I’d read about the stock market" Huh, parataxis-embedded-in-em-dash-separated-subordinate-clause, somehow I haven't seen that one before. It's an interesting article, though the author does the thing that professionals tend to do and project just that wince of…
We were not. A majority of humanity has been merely semiliterate since at least the advent of radio. As this came before secondary (high school) education became ubiquitous, I suspect that sublime, true literacy has only ever belonged to a minority.
And, of course, language is wholly imperfect to its purposes, a perpetual kludgery, even when commanded by the purest poet.