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It is a little sad to see the rise of anti-intellectualism in the U.S.
You see it everyday on CD and on Television. The villanization of true science and the hate directed toward academia.
Politicians act as the champions of the common folk while at the same time portraying educated individuals as being elitist and detached from the real world.
We have seen this before and it did not have a happy ending.
It is very common with the rise of Authoritarian regimes such as:
Cambodia - Under the Khmer Rhouge where teachers were gathered together and executed.
Italy - under fascism
Germany - under Hitler
Even more alarming is the arrogance about that lack of knowledge. The problem is not just the things we do not know (consider the one in five American adults who, according to the National Science Foundation, thinks the sun revolves around the Earth); it's the alarming number of Americans who have smugly concluded that they do not need to know such things in the first place.
Our culture seems to be going in the wrong direction.
Our culture seems to be going in the wrong direction.
More young Americans are completing high school and pursuing higher education now than ever before, though education standards do seem to have dumbed down quite a bit. Really, I think you are a little paranoid.
It is a little sad to see the rise of anti-intellectualism in the U.S.
You see it everyday on CD and on Television. The villanization of true science and the hate directed toward academia.
Politicians act as the champions of the common folk while at the same time portraying educated individuals as being elitist and detached from the real world.
We have seen this before and it did not have a happy ending.
It is very common with the rise of Authoritarian regimes such as:
Cambodia - Under the Khmer Rhouge where teachers were gathered together and executed.
Italy - under fascism
Germany - under Hitler
Even more alarming is the arrogance about that lack of knowledge. The problem is not just the things we do not know (consider the one in five American adults who, according to the National Science Foundation, thinks the sun revolves around the Earth); it's the alarming number of Americans who have smugly concluded that they do not need to know such things in the first place.
Our culture seems to be going in the wrong direction.
I think it is our addiction to political ideology. Folks are so in the tank for that, especially on the right, that anyone who does not share their viewpoint must be a liar. Since scientists and academics are strongly left-leaning as a whole, they have to be discredited and dismissed if you are rigidly right wing. Instead, you go and copy some text from a web site that is designed to stroke your ego, and past it into any discussion you like. No thinking required! Pigheadedness and ignorance have become virtues, it seems. I will say, you see the same thing in super liberal places, where political correctness takes root.
If politics were, like in the past, something that you thought about now and then, but did not obsess on every day, you might be able to listen to someone without typecasting them. You know at work yesterday,Joe, that guy with at work who loves elk hunting, he was saying x,y,z and he brought up some good points. Not..."that a-hole conservative said x,y,z... and I put that scumbag in his place.!!!!
I was, honestly 30 years old before I ever heard that there were such things as liberals and conservatives. I assumed everyone had differing opinions on different topics. For instance, I was a Christian who believed that evolution made a lot of sense. But, when talk radio got rolling in the 1980s, it devolved into braindead us vs. them thinking all day long. If you can pidgeonhole people, you don't ever need to listen to their ideas. I agree that is a very bad trajectory for our country.
I think it is our addiction to political ideology. Folks are so in the tank for that, especially on the right, that anyone who does not share their viewpoint must be a liar. Since scientists and academics are strongly left-leaning as a whole, they have to be discreditedand dismissed if you are rigidly right wing. Instead, you go and copy some text from a web site that is designed to stroke your ego, and past it into any discussion you like. No thinking required! Pigheadedness and ignorance have become virtues, it seems. I will say, you see the same thing in super liberal places, where political correctness takes root.
If politics were, like in the past, something that you thought about now and then, but did not obsess on every day, you might be able to listen to someone without typecasting them.
I was, honestly 30 years old before I ever heard that there were such things as liberals and conservatives. I assumed everyone had differing opinions on different topics. For instance, I was a Christian who believed that evolution made a lot of sense. But, when talk radio got rolling in the 1980s, it devolved into braindead us vs. them thinking all day long. If you can pidgeonhole people, you don't ever need to listen to their ideas. I agree that is a very bad trajectory for our country.
IT really seemed to start happening in the 80's with talk radio and this anti elitist crap. People then started becoming political junkies.
IT really seemed to start happening in the 80's with talk radio and this anti elitist crap. People then started becoming political junkies.
I really do think that is it. Because even as our country has drifted to the right, the dittoheads remain perpetually outraged. That is exactly what the talk radio business model and all propaganda is all about. Play to peoples' emotions and make people feel like victims.
Intellectuals would know, or at least seem to me that they would know that it wasn't corporations that brought about the lawsuit that resulted in the Citizen United ruling. That the Supreme court has already ruled that the KKK has the same Constitutional rights as everyone else and that GM went through a bankruptcy.
I really do think that is it. Because even as our country has drifted to the right, the dittoheads remain perpetually outraged. That is exactly what the talk radio business model and all propaganda is all about. Play to peoples' emotions and make people feel like victims.
Economically it has drifted to the right........ emotion driven outrage is not just a right wing thing though...... constant selective outrage on this site alone by the lefties
Not really a good thing especially since our culture in America is also complete garbage these days
I think it is our addiction to political ideology. Folks are so in the tank for that, especially on the right, that anyone who does not share their viewpoint must be a liar. Since scientists and academics are strongly left-leaning as a whole, they have to be discredited and dismissed if you are rigidly right wing.
No, they don't. And, remember that conservatism is represented in academia in fields such as business and economics.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiddlehead
Instead, you go and copy some text from a web site that is designed to stroke your ego, and past it into any discussion you like. No thinking required! Pigheadedness and ignorance have become virtues, it seems. I will say, you see the same thing in super liberal places, where political correctness takes root.
If politics were, like in the past, something that you thought about now and then, but did not obsess on every day, you might be able to listen to someone without typecasting them. You know at work yesterday,Joe, that guy with at work who loves elk hunting, he was saying x,y,z and he brought up some good points. Not..."that a-hole conservative said x,y,z... and I put that scumbag in his place.!!!!
I was, honestly 30 years old before I ever heard that there were such things as liberals and conservatives. I assumed everyone had differing opinions on different topics. For instance, I was a Christian who believed that evolution made a lot of sense. But, when talk radio got rolling in the 1980s, it devolved into braindead us vs. them thinking all day long. If you can pidgeonhole people, you don't ever need to listen to their ideas. I agree that is a very bad trajectory for our country.
In my experience, people aren't quite as obsessed with politics as you seem to make them out to be. I will grant you that some people take their ideologies too seriously and go too far (this happens on the left and on the right). What is most disturbing is when someone believes everything they see/hear on either Fox or MSNBC or Rush or read on the Daily Kos, HuffPost, or ThinkProgress. That being said, most of us who post on this forum are FAR more politically aware than the average American....to the point where it's shocking. For example, I was talking to someone just a few days ago who had never heard of Scott Walker.
Last edited by afoigrokerkok; 06-26-2012 at 02:14 PM..
Not really a good thing especially since our culture in America is also complete garbage these days
Culturally we have drifted to the left, if anything. Perhaps people on the "far right" have become louder than they were in the past or perhaps they seem more "far right" than they did before because the country has shifted left.
Culturally we have drifted to the left, if anything. Perhaps people on the "far right" have become louder than they were in the past or perhaps they seem more "far right" than they did before because the country has shifted left.
I agree with you. We have followed suit to Northern European cultural development - albeit at a much slower pace, probably because of the greater heterogeneity of our society. Even intra-nation within the EU, the developments have been differential - although generally in the same direction. The shift in the US has been across the board, usually driven by the younger generation, and has even affected those who claim to be conservative. Thus, many young conservatives agree with the notion of, for example, homosexual marriage (a definitive liberal idea) simply because they fail to identify with the notion of selective equality.
At the same time, the far right has taken to the drums to make their outrage heard. I think nobody can deny that they have been successful in their endeavor - the question remains if their hubbub will affect a lasting hindrance in our progression or if it simply pushes them more into the fringe of society.
From what I can tell on this forum, most level-headed people do not credit extremists too much - whatever side of the alleged divide they are on. Generally, we hear terms such as "troll," "tin foil hat," etc. - all of which speak of a marginalization of these people and their ideology.
Now, I know that you label yourself a conservative - I would label myself progressive. Yet, we agree on many, many things - which tells me that we are both somewhere in the center. Just like most Americans.
I have also been labelled "intellectual" and "intellectual elite" more often than I can remember - in real life and generally in NYC. I have never seen that as an offensive term. Now that I live in the south, my neighbors have the same impression - and they are definitely conservatives. None of them have ever expressed any anti-intellectualism. Quite the contrary. Thus, I think it's just a few talking heads on the right who desperately want to create such a divide: The out-of-touch liberal elite on one side, the rest of America (the average Joe) on the other side. Doing so will make voting much, much easier...and it will be along the lines these guys would like it.
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