Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Why the far right hates intellectuals and academia? Do they understand that if it wasn't for intellectuals and people of academia, computers and the internet would never existed?. Does the far right even understand the irony of anti-intellectual stance in the XXI century while being surrounded by all this great technology that wasn't around 50 years ago?
Not really. I never claimed I was an English major in college.
I don't have a college degree. Perhaps I never needed one.
I met college level academic proficiencies in most subjects in grade school.
My senior year in High School my weighted SAT's were 99th percentile. You know, the weighting where things like science and math count more than anything else.
Great. So you are a high-school intellectual. Cool. It doesnt really matter as not everybody has to go to college to be useful to society or successful. I can't stand however those who finished their education on high school or before that and still think they know enough about any specific science to voice their opinions. I am in IT but have many friends who are MDs and I would try to argue with them the merits of angioplasty for instance. I just don't know enough about the subject.
As a matter of fact they told me they can't stand those patients who read a few articles on wikipedia or any other website and the try to tell the doctor what the course of action he should take.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pnwmdk
I don't have a college degree. Perhaps I never needed one.
I met college level academic proficiencies in most subjects in grade school.
My senior year in High School my weighted SAT's were 99th percentile. You know, the weighting where things like science and math count more than anything else.
Some of the most distinguished intellectuals in the
Western world in the 1930s gave ringing praise to the Soviet Union, while
millions of people there were literally starved to death and vast numbers of
others were being shipped off to slave labor camps.
Many of those same distinguished intellectuals of the 1930s were urging their own countries to disarm while Hitler was rapidly arming
Germany for wars of conquest that would have, among other things, put many of those intellectuals in concentration camps — slated for extermination — if he had succeeded.
The 1930s were by no means unique. In too many other eras
— including our own today — intellectuals of unquestionable brilliance have
advocated similarly childish and dangerous notions. How and why such patterns have existed among intellectuals is a challenging question, whose answer can determine the fate of millions of other people.
Possibly we should start with the definition of intellectual that Sowell and many on the right disparage:
Quote:
a person who places a high value on or pursues things of interest to the intellect or the
more complex forms and fields of knowledge, as aesthetic or philosophical matters, especially on an
abstract and general level.
The intellectuals that trumpeted Marx and eugenics ideas were responsible for tens of millions of deaths in the last century.
Of course there are intellectuals that the right has few problems with; Mises, Hayek, Friedman, Sowell, Williams, etc.
Great. So you are a high-school intellectual. Cool. It doesnt really matter as not everybody has to go to college to be useful to society or successful. I can't stand however those who finished their education on high school or before that and still think they know enough about any specific science to voice their opinions.
Yeah, I know. I just like to bug people like you who get so twisted into knots over their lofty heights being desecrated by mere plebes. Having dealt with people like you for 20 years, I know exactly what buttons to push to send you off into a rage.
Quote:
I am in IT but have many friends who are MDs and I would try to argue with them the merits of angioplasty for instance. I just don't know enough about the subject.
I think you left a word out.
Quote:
As a matter of fact they told me they can't stand those patients who read a few articles on wikipedia or any other website and the try to tell the doctor what the course of action he should take.
Yeah, I've met a few of those types. I would never choose one as my doctor. I prefer people who have enough humility to realize they don't know it all, and enough sense to not pre-judge the patient's understanding.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
