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Eh. Yeah. I don't really care for downtown San Antonio. It's pretty bad frankly and too far from where most people live who actually are educated in the city. Trinity is a little bubble compared to north sa.
single moms
bartenders
waiters
and soon to be single moms
Seem to be the bread and butter of this city. I can't tell if that's because of all the military or what but it's bad. I can certainly see from this thread why degreed people just let such types bicker among themselves with their speeches while they pack up and leave the city lol (taking their $$$ with them).
It's an amusing experience nonetheless. Living in San Antonio is like going back 50-100 years in social progress compared to Austin it sorta feels. Less is more here you get the feeling and not in a good way. Ignorance is elevated.
You are misinformed and you are making very ignorant statements. I also live in the downtown area (SoFlo) and I am surrounded by doctors, lawyers, business owners, military officers etc. The downtown area is full of highly educated individuals with a common goal of making San Antonio a great city, and they are exceeding. The downtown area is vastly different (in a good way) from what it was 10 years ago and will be vastly different another 10 years from now. The smart ones are getting in on the change now and are enjoying seeing all the progress. They also are seeing their home values increase every year during a recession.
I graduated from UT Austin and worked in Austin for a number of years after graduation, and in my mind I see the Austin of today as a former shell of itself that made it great. Austin has become overly expensive and many transplants have adopted a very snobby attitude. The traffic problem is also horrendous and I don't see that being fixed anytime soon. With that said, I still love to visit Austin on the weekends (1 hr drive only) and get my fix.
You talk about progress and yet I see nothing of that in your post. Enjoy the northside and the 30k millionaires.
I'm a young woman with a degree and I wouldn't be in SA if that degree didn't leave me woefully unprepared for the job market and I hadn't come back to stay with my parents for a bit to regroup. I've got a great job now though so I'm sticking around for at least another year, I suppose, with the continuing hope that I'll be able to move to one of the company's other branches.
SA has a definite anti-intellectual culture so I can understand where you're coming from. Call me shallow, but if I decide to date again, I'd prefer a man with a educational background similar to my own. (In a perfect world, he'd also be a hottie and I bet if I created a thread called "Where all the hotties at?" I wouldn't get nearly as much as anger and condescension and many more helpful replies. :P)
Anyway, you could look into meetup.com. I've gone to some of the running groups there and met a few young ladies with degrees. The book clubs look promising as well (I'm also looking to meet women but for different reasons than you!), but I haven't tried them yet. OKCupid lists a person's educational background if you're looking to start dating, but I hear it's hard for men to get replies in general. Personally, I've been asked for my number a few times in bookstores which was flattering. Various bookstores have events as well. Garden Tea Lounge has an open mic night occasionally and that's run by a young lady with a degree.
If you have any free time, you can look into volunteering at somewhere or taking a fun community education class through the Alamo Colleges or an independent school district's community education program. (I took a really fun ceramics class through Northside! I also made a new cute female friend who happened to have a degree while taking a technical class at Northwest Vista at night.) No guarantee the women in these classes will be degreed, but there are some. If you're religious at all, you could look into the various churches.
SA has a definite anti-intellectual culture so I can understand where you're coming from.
This is meant kindly, out of curiosity. I understand that San Antonio isn't a particularly "intellectual" city, and despite the number of universities we seem to have more blue collar/service jobs than those requiring highly educated people. But what makes it *anti* intellectual?
Admittedly, I mostly run in educated circles, just through a combination of chance and that's whom I meet through professional associations, which beget more associations etc. Is there really a backlash against intellectual types? i.e. an "anti-intellectual" feeling, people bashing those with degrees?
Oh, and hotties are always nice. I ended up meeting my hottie, intellectual at a bar
Is there really a backlash against intellectual types? i.e. an "anti-intellectual" feeling, people bashing those with degrees?
Yes, I really think so, here in San Antonio the intellectual types aren't valued except at Trinity University. I always get great conversations there but outside of Trinity University the conversation gets trivial and vacuous, the employment is very paint-by-number and color-inside-the-lines. Trying to meet educated people who are intellectual is not a successful experience in San Antonio especially when you are graduated and on the job.
I think what is funny is I just read an article that San Antonio has the most college students than any other city in Texas. Which makes a ton of sense when you see how many universities we have, UTSA, Texas A&M has a campus here, Trinity, Lady of the Lake, etc.
I am not from here like I've said, but I wouldn't call the city anti education or intelligent, it's just more laid back without the need for people to shove their degrees in people's faces or brag about what they've accomplished.
And for the person who said their degree left them unprepared for the workforce, your degree didn't leave you unprepared, you had unrealistic expectations of what your degree meant. Like I've previously posted a 4 year degree nowadays is nothing more than what a high school diploma was in the 70's, everyone has one especially BA's, so it's nothing special.
This is meant kindly, out of curiosity. I understand that San Antonio isn't a particularly "intellectual" city, and despite the number of universities we seem to have more blue collar/service jobs than those requiring highly educated people. But what makes it *anti* intellectual?
Admittedly, I mostly run in educated circles, just through a combination of chance and that's whom I meet through professional associations, which beget more associations etc. Is there really a backlash against intellectual types? i.e. an "anti-intellectual" feeling, people bashing those with degrees?
Oh, and hotties are always nice. I ended up meeting my hottie, intellectual at a bar
Quote:
Originally Posted by RJMorris82
I think what is funny is I just read an article that San Antonio has the most college students than any other city in Texas. Which makes a ton of sense when you see how many universities we have, UTSA, Texas A&M has a campus here, Trinity, Lady of the Lake, etc.
I am not from here like I've said, but I wouldn't call the city anti education or intelligent, it's just more laid back without the need for people to shove their degrees in people's faces or brag about what they've accomplished.
And for the person who said their degree left them unprepared for the workforce, your degree didn't leave you unprepared, you had unrealistic expectations of what your degree meant. Like I've previously posted a 4 year degree nowadays is nothing more than what a high school diploma was in the 70's, everyone has one especially BA's, so it's nothing special.
I am not certain that either of you understand what anti-intellectualism is? It is not really about a backlash against intellectual types or bashing those with degrees just as intellectualism is not about shoving your degree in people's faces or bragging about accomplishments.
San Antonio's overall culture is definitely anti-intellectual.
One could describe this as "laid back" but as skeet noted, some in town, "can definitely hold his own on a conversation regarding technology, societal issues, politics, religions, etc," while others will offer you vacuous stares or hostile reactions since they would rather discuss trivial topics.
zhugeliang understands this although her hostility towards those who simply do not know better is one that I have shared before and at times still do. I just don't think that attitude is going to help the city.
A Saint Mary's professor emeritus of Sociology, Daniel Rigney, offered Hofstadter's definition of anti-intellectualism.
Quote:
Hofstadter defined anti-intellectualism broadly to refer to an attitude of “resentment and suspicion” toward the “critical, creative, and contemplative side of mind.”
I have a BS in EE and I'm 30 and have a fairly high income.
"Intellectual" is obviously open to interpretation. I don't know if any of you realize that a lot of the high-tech jobs out there, especially with Rackspace, don't look for degrees as a requirement, yet they pay as much as degree-required jobs. I knew 2 people in IT (not at Rackspace) that made a little over 100k a year with no degree. Network Security and DBA jobs pay a ton if you know what you're doing.
I think it's fairly obvious if you want to find "degreed young women" you could obviously just hang around near college campuses. I would also imagine local libraries, around the downtown UTSA campus, and in general (yes I'm generalizing here) the northern areas of San Antonio.
And if I may throw my opinion in. As others have said, San Antonio has a lot of people with a family-oriented mindset compared to the ladies in Austin. I can't go for somebody like me. I have a strong desire for a woman with the San Antonio mindset, if you want to call it that. College-educated women often tend to be too full of feminism or looking for an easy way out of a relationship. To sum this up, I basically just told myself never to judge a woman based on her education or how much money she makes.
A Saint Mary's professor emeritus of Sociology, Daniel Rigney, offered Hofstadter's definition of anti-intellectualism.
attitude of “resentment and suspicion” toward the “critical, creative, and contemplative side of mind.”]
This definition is precisely what I was indicating. I personally have not had the experience of resentment or suspicion towards the intellectual frame of mind ("Intellectual," not educated and not intelligent. These are different things). And while a significant portion of my acquaintance are academic sorts (only a few from Trinity though), I have a fairly broad spectrum of acquaintances. It's unfortunate others have experienced this, and I am sure if they say so, then they have. Fortunately, this has not been my own experience here. No, it's not DC or -name any small city with an Ivy, but I have not experienced an anti-intellectual environment so I am surprised to hear this as "common."
I think that, in the US in general, there is a sense of anti-intellectualism culturally, and definitely in Texas, so I am sure the same exists in San Antonio. But I have found a lot of that to be media-driven and political rhetoric. One-on-one, I find it to be very different.
I will add, though, that I do think some people try too hard at times to *be* intellectual. You know the type - those who think "if I read this book and talk about it or bring up this topic, then people will think I'm intellectual." It's easy to spot those who do it naturally, because they're truly interested, and those who have to make an effort. Frankly, as someone who has spends their professional life in intellectual pursuit, it's nice to talk about the goings on of Downton Abbey once in awhile (though inevitably that leads to more in depth discussions of the fall of the aristocratic class of early 20th C England)
I agree with everything you have said in your last two posts Chaka. I think there are a lot of those "Intellectual" people on this board who want to feel they are more intelligent or more insightful than everyone else. Let's be honest, people who feel San Antonio is anti-intellectual are either; really stuck up and think they are better than most people; or they simply cannot relate to people here and it must be everyone else's fault and not their own.
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I've got a great job now though so I'm sticking around for at least another year, I suppose, with the continuing hope that I'll be able to move to one of the company's other branches. 
