Anti Intellectualism is Killing America

POSTED BY: Magonsdaughter
UPDATED: Monday, July 13, 2026 01:26
VIEWED: 26774
PAGE 3 of 21

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NEXT PAGE

SECOND

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 2:15 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by THGRRI:
Give it time folks. Look at all the changes in this country that have occurred in the last eighty years or so.

The process is slower than that. Most people do what everyone around them do, even when the “everyone” around have been dead 150 years. There is a recent paper called The Political Legacy of American Slavery. It shows a strong relationship, at the county level, between the slave share of the population in 1860 and political attitudes today:

“We show that contemporary differences in political attitudes across counties in the American South in part trace their origins to slavery’s prevalence more than 150 years ago. Whites who currently live in Southern counties that had high shares of slaves in 1860 are more likely to identify as a Republican, oppose affirmative action, and express racial resentment and colder feelings toward blacks.”

Remarkably, the slave share in 1860 is a better predictor of attitudes than the share of African-Americans in the population today. The paper attributes this surprising fact to what happened after the Civil War, when:

“Southern whites faced political and economic incentives to reinforce existing racist norms and institutions to maintain control over the newly free African-American population.”
http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/msen/files/slavery.pdf

THGRRI

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 3:48 AM

All this talk of slavery and racism is always the same and deflects from the fact that Blacks only represent 13% of the population. They have very little power and need to center changes from within. The Asian population represents 5% of this country’s residents and look different, but do not suffer the same lack of access to resources. Ask yourself why that is.

The reason a company opens up its doors in a community is because that community provides what the company desires. Would you open a business in these impoverished neighborhoods? Do you consider these people as worth the risk employees? Sounds cold but I am just asking if you feel differently and why.

The slavery debate also defects from the fact that people who are different, differ. I am not saying any form of oppression is acceptable but it is not just about racism. Racism is when someone of a different color skin claims superiority. There are a lot of White people in this country who have witnessed firsthand people from India doing just that once coming to America. It is taught to them in the call centers in India that Americans are very immature. Racism is nothing more than bigotry and bigotry is practiced by all cultures in all forms and venues. Politics and religion to name two. Blacks have problems with Hispanics because they fight for the same resources. Many Whites have problems with Hispanics because by sheer numbers they are changing the American landscape. They feel they and their ancestors worked hard to build this country and the migrants broke the law getting here. Jews and Islamists hate each other. Chinese hate the Japanese and the Japanese still dislike the Koreans.

I had a Japanese professor who sent her children to Japan for their first years of schooling because she, like other Japanese, did not want her children influenced by American culture. In Asian countries everyone looks Asian. There’s a reason for that. The Hispanic and Italian cultures want their children to many others of the same culture just as it was for Catholics. It’s the same for other religious faiths. Its all bigotry and no different from racism.

Look, even Backs portray the Black community as a less than desirable place to live in their movies, and certainly as no place anyone would care to invest. I don’t know about you and I am not saying this to be mean but you all want to quote statistics (which are important) but you forget about the image portrayed by Blacks to the rest of society. I find their behavior abrasive and somewhat anti-social. Now I am willing to admit their history crated this but still it exists, and being white and privy to what many think, it would go a long way if they would make their hate of whites a little less apparent. It couldn’t hurt. It should also be noted that someone who never even tried to fit into society because it is (the White man’s way) has little influence in the conversation because it is not the White man’s way, it is what it takes to gain resources. I think it might help if the discussion were to include the human propensity to do this to each other. To expose how religion and other cultural beliefs are the fuel for all of this.

What is your culture and what faith do you practice?

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 3:47 PM

I think Signy hits the mark with this

Quote:
My more intellectual friends pointed out to me ... decades ago ... the fundamental anti-intellectualism of Americans. It was justified as "the wisdom of the rough-hewn farmer/frontiersman" being better than the corrupt, dandified, static intellectuals of Europe. During the anti-war movement, it was expressed as disdain for those "effete intellectual snobs" (VP Spiro Agnew, expressing a widely-promoted anti-anti-war sentiment).

........

There are all kinds of reasons why Americans are particularly ignorant: Most of us are far away from any other nation, protected from foreign ideas by two large oceans on either side and a USA-clone up north. We have a history of disdain for learning anything from history, since our "pioneer" meme is to build everything from scratch. And most of us are English-only, inoculating us against any threat of contamination.

Yes, closest observation to how I see my culture and where we are similar. We came from working class, often criminal sub class and that formed our mythology...not intellectuals or thinkers, but doers. People who rolled up their sleeves and worked hard. Plain spoken, stronly egalitarian, common sense valued over wisdom.

We also suffer from 'tall poppy syndrome'. Traditionally, it was considered vulgar for people to do too well, especially if they were perceived as being proud of their achievements. That sort of stuff detracts from the sense of the underdog is someone we should support. I know this stuff is prevelant because I FEEL IT TOO.

Trouble is, disdain also spreads to people who are too clever, who know too much. Academics are viewed with suspicion, philosophers...perlease, who would give them the time of day. people are most comfortable talking crap to one another, Reality TV, holidays, renovations, things they have purchased. SPORT, SPORT and MORE SPORT.

Geez just thinking about it makes me want to bleed from my eyes.

SECOND

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 6:01 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by THGRRI:
All this talk of slavery and racism is always the same and deflects from the fact that Blacks only represent 13% of the population. They have very little power and need to center changes from within. The Asian population represents 5% of this country’s residents and look different, but do not suffer the same lack of access to resources. Ask yourself why that is.
. . .
I had a Japanese professor who sent her children to Japan for their first years of schooling because she, like other Japanese, did not want her children influenced by American culture. In Asian countries everyone looks Asian.

I assume you have not been around white Texans with their deranged contempt for Obama. Nigerian engineers I know have asked me, “Why are whites crazy with hate toward this man?” The Nigerians find American racism hard to rationalize. Why can't white people see that blacks are superior, as is Obama to that fool George Bush? But Nigerians were never a minority and nobody in the country of their birth was snidely insinuating they weren't up to white standards. African-Americans do not have the psychological protection that Nigerians have by not being born and raised in America.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

THGRRI

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 9:22 PM

TWO

Quote:

Nigerian engineers I know have asked me, “Why are whites crazy with hate toward this man?” The Nigerians find American racism hard to rationalize. Why can't white people see that blacks are superior, as is Obama to that fool George Bush?

Benin Nigeria during the slave trade years prevented the depletion of its own population by prohibiting the export of male slaves during the 16th and 17th centuries, and by importing slaves purchased by Europeans elsewhere in West Africa, and resold some of them to the region which is now Ghana.

It boils down to politics and bigotry in this country, what do they call it in theirs?

TWO

Quote:

But Nigerians were never a minority and nobody in the country of their birth was snidely insinuating they weren't up to white standards. African-Americans do not have the psychological protection that Nigerians have by not being born and raised in America.

I have many anecdotal stories of immigrants and they do not understand what the Blacks in this country are crying about. They find jobs and benefit from all the programs that allow them to take advantage of our educational system. They realize not everybody is going to like them and they see the opportunities here as endless.

I do not want to come across as a denier of bigotry and the plight of Blacks in this country. I am just insisting that it works both ways and that needs to be on the table when discussing the problem. Many Blacks see whites as responsible for all their troubles even though they refused to participate in school or try to better themselves in any way. They have their excuse card and they play it to the hilt. Others within their communities have to clean that up.

THGRRI

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 9:36 PM

The term anti-intellectualism was coined by an intellectual. This makes it suspect.

Even people who write about the subject appear to not understand the term.

Anti-intellectualism is hostility towards and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectual pursuits, usually expressed as the derision of education, philosophy, literature, art, and science, as impractical and contemptible.

It's just the opposite in this country. Americans want the best education their money can buy for them and if not them their kids. Every election voters always place education up at the top of their list of concerns.

People don't have a distaste for education, they just don't like snobs or people who always think they are right looking down on them.

If you want to see a country that matches the definition of anti-intellectual, look to laos in the 70's.

SIGNYM

Thursday, June 25, 2015 4:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by G:
Plenty of well educated bigots, shitbirds, and assholes. I'll go for compassion, selflessness, empathy and other traits that are much harder to teach.

HAHAHAHA!!!!!

*wipes eyes*

Says the man who just wants to bomb people!!!!

You owe me a keyboard, for the coffee that I managed to spray all over it. Son, you don't even KNOW when you're being a psychopath! That's why you can manage to write this with (presumably) a straight face. But that's like most anti-intellectuals: no perspective, no self-reflection.

Quote:
The term anti-intellectualism was coined by an intellectual. This makes it suspect.

Because, of course, you judge ideas by who came up with them, instead of whether they have any merit.

--------------
You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

SIGNYM

Thursday, June 25, 2015 4:52 PM

Quote:
"Caveat Emptor" says it pretty well for me ;) Are you going to determine what someone can buy or believe in? Are you going to decide what things people can say? Are you going to be the one that determines who these so-called susceptible people are and what topics they should address to better themselves? Your version of a free society has lots of controls over ""people" with what appears to be you doing the controlling. Can you address that?

Actually, yes, I can. And I have. Did you not read my point about people being MANIPULATED? I'm against people being manipulated, in case you haven't figured that out. YOU'RE being manipulated, in fact. You've been manipulated so long - your whole life- you think it's the truth, that it springs natively from some deep knowledge that you already have. But can you even explain WHAT you believe and WHY you feel so deeply?

No so far.

That's a good indication that you really don't know what you know.

I believe in arming people with enough questioning attitude to make that manipulation impossible. SOME PEOPLE (You, perhaps?) don't want to ask questions, and really hate answers if they lead in unfamiliar directions.

I have many times expressed how I define knowledge and how I define intellectualism. One of the books that really influenced my thinking is Man Against Myth. But, in reality, in order to be an intellectual, one has to stop being defensive about ideas. Turn the emotion dial down, and contemplate with a certain amount of sang froid [literally = "blood frozen"] ideas which are unfamiliar or which lead to discomfort. MOST people's weakness aren't intellectual, they're emotional. Most people are afraid of new ideas.

Quote:
I think like a lot of people you use the word "intellectualism" too casually, definitely without clarity. The way you and others use it is with a heavy dose of, "we have decided we are intellectuals. If you don't believe as we do then you are not intelligent," when objectively, it can simply be a difference of opinion, just one you do not share.

I don't criticize you because you don't "believe as I do". I criticize you because you're incapable of supporting "your" ideas vigorously, on the basis of evidence instead of on the basis of emotion. In fact, I would prefer that people NOT "believe". OTOH, I have thought long AND HARD about my opinions, I've honed them against a lot of years of experience, and I'm not going to roll over just because you're frothing in the mouth about something. If you're going to change my mind, you have to CONVINCE me, something that you're (so far) incapable of doing. (And, no, it's not going to be on the basis of how strongly you "feel" something, that was my point.)

Quote:
I really don't think that is what the problem is. More education would solve this anti-intellectualism but I think the real problem is: “It's better not to know.”

Hmmm ... I don't equate "education" with "intellectualism", so I guess my definition of "intellectualism" and "anti intellectualism" is a bit different.

It's important to be educated. After all, you don't want to have to individually recapitulate the entire history of intellectual achievement by yourself - from discovering fire to E= mC^2 - that would be insane as well as un-doable. The strength of humans (and also our downfall) is the complexity of the information that we can transmit from generation to generation.

But IMHO in order to be a TRUE intellectual - as opposed to a technician who simply absorbs and applies the received knowledge - one must be able to ASK INSIGHTFUL QUESTIONS in order to develop new knowledge.

I know that sounds suspiciously like a PhD program, and the process of defending a thesis and achieving a doctorates degree, but again IMHO anyone can be an intellectual, we

SECOND

Thursday, June 25, 2015 4:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by THGRRI:
If you want to see a country that matches the definition of anti-intellectual, look to laos in the 70's.

Thousands of Laotians were dispatched for "re-education" in remote parts of the country, where many died and many more were kept for up to ten years. Many of the professional and intellectual class left Laos. By 1977 10 percent of the population had left the country, including most of the business and educated classes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Laos_since_1945#Start_of_auth
oritarianism

THGRRI

Thursday, June 25, 2015 7:59 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by THGRRI:
If you want to see a country that matches the definition of anti-intellectual, look to laos in the 70's.
Thousands of Laotians were dispatched for "re-education" in remote parts of the country, where many died and many more were kept for up to ten years. Many of the professional and intellectual class left Laos. By 1977 10 percent of the population had left the country, including most of the business and educated classes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Laos_since_1945#Start_of_auth
oritarianism

Yeah it was a real mess. I think Magansdaugthers' article misses the mark and stereotypes the American people.

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NEXT PAGE