Is Anti-Intellectualism Growing In America?

[Razors Edge ★]

...and is this a bad thing?

My gut tells me that it can't be good!

[jsharr ★]

I AM STATIC

[Zephyr]

Judging from your use of "America" in the title, I would say "Yes"

 

[Page Turner]

...every time you use that "intelligent post" tag it gets bigger.

[12string]

Intellectualism /= intelligence

just sayin'.  liturally.  BURN!

[Page Turner]

...

51 minutes ago, 12string said:

Intellectualism /= intelligence

 

...so you are a part of this growing movement of anti -intellectuals ?

[Dottleshead ★]

All you need is love.

[MickinMD ★]

Anti-intellectualism is expanding in America.  There's less trust in and appreciation of science and technology - unless you need a cure or a medicine or a cup that won't break if your kid drops it, etc.

There is also a smaller percentage of young people today who believe it's worthwhile to work hard and enter STEM fields when they could major in easier subjects.

It seems to me that people can't be bothered to actually study a subject or issue but act as though they know it all.

Apparently, that's nothing new.  2500 years ago, when the Oracle of Delphi proclaimed that Socrates of Athens was the wisest man on Earth, Socrates tried to discredit the Oracle.  He searched for wiser people among politicians, generals, craftsmen, artists, etc.  Finally he realized the Oracle was right: Socrates was the wisest man because he was the only one who realized how little he knew.

[late]

" America is killing itself through its embrace and exaltation of ignorance, and the evidence is all around us... In a country where a sitting congressman told a crowd that evolution and the Big Bang are “lies straight from the pit of hell,” where the chairman of a Senate environmental panel brought a snowball into the chamber as evidence that climate change is a hoax.. At the core of all of this dysfunction is an abandonment of reason."

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201506/anti-intellectualism-is-killing-america

Anti-intellectual is something of a tradition.

"He contended that American Protestantism's anti-intellectual tradition valued the spirit over intellectual rigour.^[1 "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism_in_American_Life

https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Real-Victims-of/241101

 

 

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

“They are Ignorance and Want. Fear them”.  Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol.

[Ralphie ★]

Stoopid is as stoopid does!

[Kzoo]

Huh?

[donkpow]

1 hour ago, MickinMD said:

Anti-intellectualism is expanding in America.  There's less trust in and appreciation of science and technology - unless you need a cure or a medicine or a cup that won't break if your kid drops it, etc.

There is also a smaller percentage of young people today who believe it's worthwhile to work hard and enter STEM fields when they could major in easier subjects.

It seems to me that people can't be bothered to actually study a subject or issue but act as though they know it all.

Apparently, that's nothing new.  2500 years ago, when the Oracle of Delphi proclaimed that Socrates of Athens was the wisest man on Earth, Socrates tried to discredit the Oracle.  He searched for wiser people among politicians, generals, craftsmen, artists, etc.  Finally he realized the Oracle was right: Socrates was the wisest man because he was the only one who realized how little he knew.

I applied for the job as "Oracle". They said I didn't have the foreground for the job.

[onbike1939]

It always has been......I would have thought, given the public's attitude to teachers. This is also reflected in their salary structure. 

[Chris...]

15 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

...and is this a bad thing?

My gut tells me that it can't be good!

How else will you get them to drink the kool-aid

[Razors Edge ★]

2 hours ago, onbike1939 said:

the public's attitude to teachers.

Teachers are saints. They are following the highest & noblest calling and are true heroes.

...Until they're not and become scapegoats and a bunch of whiny, ignorant, & overpaid public sponges!

15 hours ago, Zephyr said:

Judging from your use of "America" in the title, I would say "Yes" 

I do sometimes forget the CAnadian sensitivities   Luckily, I wrote "America" and not "The Americas", but hey, CAnadians will likely still get their feathers ruffled.

But I do read some of the post from America's top hat, and it does seem like anti-intellectualism is on the rise there too.  Mexico, Central, and South America seem to have their own challenges as well.

[Zephyr]

2 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

I do sometimes forget the CAnadian sensitivities   Luckily, I wrote "America" and not "The Americas", but hey, CAnadians will likely still get their feathers ruffled.

But I do read some of the post from America's top hat, and it does seem like anti-intellectualism is on the rise there too.  Mexico, Central, and South America seem to have their own challenges as well.

Feathers are not ruffled, one of my many flaws is I feel an uncontrollable urge to correct people when they are wrong.  That is all

[Dottleshead ★]

2 minutes ago, Zephyr said:

Feathers are not ruffled, one of my many flaws is I feel an uncontrollable urge to correct people when they are wrong.  That is all

You don't strike me as the ruffled feathers type.

[Razors Edge ★]

7 minutes ago, Zephyr said:

Feathers are not ruffled, one of my many flaws is I feel an uncontrollable urge to correct people when they are wrong.  That is all

Seems ruffled.

CAnadian pride demands Americans (that's folks from the US of A) get chided once in a while. No where else on the North or South American continents does that happen.

[Dottleshead ★]

42 minutes ago, Zephyr said:

Feathers are not ruffled, one of my many flaws is I feel an uncontrollable urge to correct people when they are wrong.  That is all

 

33 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Seems ruffled.

CAnadian pride demands Americans (that's folks from the US of A) get chided once in a while. No where else on the North or South American continents does that happen.

I hardly doubt Zephyr is bothered by fruit flies.

[Razors Edge ★]

10 minutes ago, Dottie said:

I hardly doubt Zephyr is bothered by fruit flies. 

Zephyr's a great guy, whose outlook is a bit clouded by CAnadian pride.  In America, we don't get too ruffled if people call us "Yanks", "Mericans", or even "those idiots", but regardless, we're still Americans.  CAnadians are CAnadians. Mexicans are Mexicans, Peruvians are Peruvians, etc etc. 

[12string]

Teachers don't teach intellectutualism.  At least not as subject matter.  Teachers teach to intelligence.  The decrease in intellectualism is not at all their fault.

Society, social media, entertainment and our current political atmosphere are doing the greatest damage to intellectualism.  Common sense is under attack from lazy knowledge.  Slacktivism and copying memes has replaced getting out there and learning how the world actually works.

If education is also part of the attack, it's the emphasis on test scores over actual learning that de-emphasizes the value of knowledge.

[Dottleshead ★]

16 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Zephyr's a great guy, whose outlook is a bit clouded by CAnadian pride.  In America, we don't get too ruffled if people call us "Yanks", "Mericans", or even "those idiots", but regardless, we're still Americans.  CAnadians are CAnadians. Mexicans are Mexicans, Peruvians are Peruvians, etc etc. 

 

[Page Turner]

...hosers hose. Just sayin' .

[Chris...]

[shootingstar]

I don't what to say anymore.

When I think of El Paso and Trump's comments prior to that tragedy.  Then I hear another Canadian claim "mass migration or immigration" into Canada, it makes my heart sad.  When immigration numbers only comprise less than 1% of Canada's population annually.  

It is the proud hordes of 2nd to 5th generation Canadians of Asian, Afro descent.... who now live in Canada. There's no invasion. They are also assimilated because the societal pressure /necessity to work, make friends...and to contribute to broader community.

I plead great understanding ongoing....now.

False news ...does affect some of us....when some of us try so hard for so long.