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No, not that or, at least, hardly only that. The notion that "nerds" is the only thing you thought of in response to what I posted is pretty wild.
It was a joke, you nerd.
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The advertisement in which an engineer is talking about a new clothes washer, and the documentary over-voice is in hushed tones translating him into English.
Boy you are a paranoid nerd aren't you? Advertisers go for the laugh because that is what makes people pay attention.
You want to know something else? Commercials like that one are intended to make fun of the receiver not the engineer. As in, we are so dumb that we need an interpreter for something being spoken in english.
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Detective show after detective show in which the above average but not intended to seem brilliant hero outwits the Nobel (or other prize) winning scientist or the incredible physician, or whomever the smart villain of the week is.
There are literally thousands of counter examples where the hero is the intellectual. Ever hear of McGuyver, Monk, House, the Professor (Gilligans Island)..etc...etc...etc.
Why are you not seeing these examples?
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The way the smartest people who are background characters on sitcoms are dressed, talked to, and talked about.
Whether you like it or not, intellectuals are not a dime a dozen and they do tend to stand out on their own terms. The fact that you choose to see all intellectuals on TV or the movies as victims is pathetic.
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(It is clear to me that you don't see that. But since you think "nerd" is primarily a term of endearment, this is not a real shock.)
See above....you nerd.
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Way to change the topic to something easier for you.
You really need to understand the fact that you have been embarrassed by me.
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I don't know your area, but even if the first programs to go are the sports programs, I would be more than happy to wager that the amount of money spent on sports was higher than the amount spent on programs for the top students - say an equivalent percentage of the student body as are on the varsity teams.
So, now our school boards are anti-intellectual. Is there anyone who is immune to this disease?
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As for schools, they are anti-intellectual bastions - the staff room as surely as the classroom. "Don't read ahead." "Oh, the other kids will catch up by 3rd grade." "You can't have written this yourself." "It doesn't matter if you already know the material, you need to do the work, anyway."
Incompetence does not equal anti-intellectualism
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The teachers, their hiring and firing, and the negotiated contracts do not serve as counter arguments to anything I have said - only as red herrings.
Well then let's just forget that I said it.
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Oh yes. Because if something is A it can't be B, too. *sigh* When the person doing the choosing is, himself, an anti-intellectual, then it's both.
Here's an idea. You prove that the example you listed is caused by anti-intellectualism and we'll go from there.
If you cannot prove it, then it will affirm my opinion of you as a paranoid, psuedo-intellectual horses behind.
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Oh, there's a rejoinder!
I mention an administration-wide practice of disinformation and the hiding or ignoring of science in the decision-making and public policy processes and you note that I'm taking it personally but they don't?
You can mention whatever you want. None of it proves anti-intellectualism.
It proves ignorance, stupidity, and politics.
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Yeah, and neither is the name-calling. "Terms of endearment," I believe you called it. Well, then, sir, you are an anti-intellectual. Consider that to be just as much a term of endearment.
You could scarcely have done a better job making my point if I had paid you to!
And yet, the wry and depressing thing is, you won't see it. None of this will permeate. You're like the folks who insist that discrimination against women is (and was) gone.
"I don't see it, therefore it does not exist," he said, with his eyes squeezed shut.
And the fact that you are an angry idiot, that's right I called you an idiot, for you are not remotely as intelligent as you seem to think that you are,
will not permeate either.
Please tell me that you are not really teaching children. Just please tell me that. You can even lie about it.
The irony of this thread is how it underscores the points made in the initial post and the articles to which it refers.
I am reminded of all the times when folks have complained in an argument that what I was doing wasn't fair, because I argued better than they did and I had facts and examples to support my side, but that didn't mean I was right.
And it didn't. But somehow, to them, that I had facts and evidence counted against my being right and made me unfair.
<snip>
I would like to second this thought. I was reminded of an experience I had at a city council meeting many years ago. A zoning issue was being discussed, to allow a pre-school in a residential neighborhood. "Our" side presented many statistics. The "Other Side" had no stats, and asked for a postponement of the decision, so they could go out and gather theirs. The council wisely rejected that proposal. (This is, BTW, the kind of thing Sarah Palin did as a councilwoman/mayor of Wasilla, for those of you who think she was doing such earth shattering work.)
Both regular folks and intellectuals are good people, and both are needed in society, but it seems that many conservatives--the ones who really speak for the movement--don't place any value on higher education, which might explain why they thought the Obamas didn't achieve anything, despite making it to ivy league schools from humble beginnings. No, that's not achievement, it's not worth noting
You're looking slightly askance at this picture. It's not that conservatives don't value higher education; it's that conservatives have lost resepect for many of the INSTITUTIONS of higher education, because they are run by, and sometimes it seems run FOR, leftists.
Heh. I have a neighbor that sounds like some of the ranting righties here - on and on about how educations sucks, yet he also complains about local levies to fund school programs.
Typical short-sighted "conservative".
Are you one of those who think that the problem can be solved by throwing more money at it?
Perhaps those "short sighted conservatives" are unhappy that they are being taxed at an alarmingly high rate for schools that are not getting the job done. Perhaps those "short sighted conservatives" want to be sure the system is fixed, and operating better than it does now, before throwing more of their hard earned money away on an education system that doesn't educate their kids properly.
Are you one of those who think that the problem can be solved by throwing more money at it?
Perhaps those "short sighted conservatives" are unhappy that they are being taxed at an alarmingly high rate for schools that are not getting the job done. Perhaps those "short sighted conservatives" want to be sure the system is fixed, and operating better than it does now, before throwing more of their hard earned money away on an education system that doesn't educate their kids properly.
In the 2004 election the democratic ticket won the high school drop out crowd.
How's that for irony?
I would like to second this thought. I was reminded of an experience I had at a city council meeting many years ago. A zoning issue was being discussed, to allow a pre-school in a residential neighborhood. "Our" side presented many statistics. The "Other Side" had no stats, and asked for a postponement of the decision, so they could go out and gather theirs. The council wisely rejected that proposal. (This is, BTW, the kind of thing Sarah Palin did as a councilwoman/mayor of Wasilla, for those of you who think she was doing such earth shattering work.)
So you are saying that Sarah Palin was unprepared for council meetings?
You need to read some charts my friend. Reagan averaged a higher unemployment rate than Carter, and it peaked at over 9%. He also ran up a deficit three times that which Carter left him, which he then left for Bush Sr. to deal with.
The GOP sure have done a good job of painting him as some sort of God though.
Before you start attacking my statements because you think I am a typical liberal or whatever - I voted for Reagan in 1984.
Take a good look at your own chart. And I think you already know what I'm going to point out, as you chose to use the statistic "average unemployment."
When Carter bacame President, in 1977, unemployment was trending DOWNWARD. He took a couple of years to accomplish the feat, but by the middle of his term, the unemployment rate was neatly increasing.
Reagan took office in 1981, as that Carter trend was in full momentum. Two years later, the trend had been reversed, and unemployment was dropping.
Take a good look at your own chart. And I think you already know what I'm going to point out, as you chose to use the statistic "average unemployment."
When Carter bacame President, in 1977, unemployment was trending DOWNWARD. He took a couple of years to accomplish the feat, but by the middle of his term, the unemployment rate was neatly increasing.
Reagan took office in 1981, as that Carter trend was in full momentum. Two years later, the trend had been reversed, and unemployment was dropping.
And by the same token, Clinton can than Reagan for putting in place the economic policies that resulted in the prosperity during the Clinton administration.
Professors are mad scientists, unwittingly unleashing horrors upon society.
Good grief, am I trapped in an old Underdog episode?
“What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?” --T.S. Eliot
No kidding!
I am seeing a lot of blanket statements on this forum. FYI kids, making blanket statements means you lose credibility. For instance the implication of some of these posts is that if your job title is Professor than you are a "lefty" bent on mayhem and destruction. Sheesh. An educated person would have said, "Some professors" or maybe even "many" and then cited sources as to why they think that is true. A person who had bothered to educated himself would have found that indeed some professors are conservative. And therefore the statement, "All professors are lefties" is false. If you only read the headlines you will never know the truth. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, it has come to the point we all have to do our own research to learn the truth.
I believe that both sides are wrong and both sides are right. Schools need to teach "basics" much more than they do. However, they also need to teach kids to be intellectually curious. Intellectual curiosity is frowned upon by certain politicians and churches because it’s easier to control uneducated people. That absolutely goes against the views of our early leaders who believed a well educated populous is essential to a well run government
Very interesting article about anti intellectualism in the Republican party. I could not agree more! Ignorance and anti-intellectualism have become the trademarks of the GOP.
Good article, thanks for posting the link. My favorite excerpts from that site are these two:
- In August, Paul Krugman had a fairly devastating piece identifying the GOP as "the party of stupid." As the Nobel Laureate explained, "What I mean ... is that know-nothingism -- the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there's something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise -- has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party's de facto slogan has become: 'Real men don't think things through.'
- If the party is sincerely looking for a way out of its self-dug ditch, taking facts, reason, and evidence seriously again would be a good start.
In practice, the GOP response to situations can be described thusly:
- Simple solutions? TAX CUT - FOR THE RICH! It's the GOP's intellectual equal to John Belushi shouting "TOGA PARTY"!
- Brute Force solution? MILITARY ACTION - NOW! It's the GOP's equal to shoot from the hip, wild-west diplomacy.
- Instant gratification? TAX REBATES! BAILOUTS FOR THE GUILTY RICH! It's the GOP equal to spontaneous ejaculation.
When it comes to "taking facts, reason, and evidence seriously again" it takes us right back to the Scopes trial, the same battle that's raging today in some rural states over whether evolution or creationism will be taught in our public schools. It further plays out in stem-cell research battle lines that are drawn along the same anti-science lines by GOP pandering to extreme religious neanderthals like the American Taliban of Dobson, Robertson, et al.
A huge THANK YOU to JPS-Teacher for outstanding postings. Bravo!
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And by the same token, Clinton can than Reagan for putting in place the economic policies that resulted in the prosperity during the Clinton administration.
