“X is acting like Voldemort. Voldemort level evil. Literally 1984.” What are you a child?
If someone brags about reading for status but only reads fiction, their knowledge is useless in practice. Fiction can be great, but treat it like junk food, enjoyable but not real world wisdom
Yeah I think it is not only illiteracy but specifically historical illiteracy. There are plenty of real people in history that could be used for comparison, but most people have greater familiarity with fictional characters in popular media.
Illiteracy is often a function of educational access; the joy or pain is in how open a person is to learning and how much of wilful anti-intellectualism exists to protect any relative class privileges.