this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2023
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One of the most aggravating things to me in this world has to be the absolutely rampant anti-intellectualism that dominates so many conversations and debates, and its influence just seems to be expanding. Do you think there will ever actually be a time when this ends? I'd hope so once people become more educated and cultural changes eventually happen, but as of now it honestly infuriates me like few things ever have.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The general population is more educated now than in the past, but education alone is not what makes one an intellectual, or rather a good intellectual. Having intellectual virtues what makes one a good intellectual, imo. These virtues include intellectual humility, intellectual courage, intellectual curiosity, intellectual honesty, and intellectual responsibility.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (11 children)

This smells like someone who considers himself an β€œintellectual” and is sick of people disagreeing with him.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or someone who's seen brexit happen, or the rise of right wing populist parties everywhere that want to ban books and discount expert advice on climate, the economy, etc.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This smells like jumping to conclusions.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

As long as there are financial incentives to keep people being anti-intellectual, we will never see a world where the average person acts in good faith and with good knowledge of the subjects they're talking/debating about.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

As long as conservatism exists, no.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Most people don't have the capacity so it makes them angry and mistrustful of anything that's perceived to be "smart". Maybe if one is a true intellectual they can make dumb down these concepts so that they can at least get a basic understanding of them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

People will always fear that which they cannot understand.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I don't think I've ever witnessed literal "anti-intellectualism", perhaps that's a thing around you ? People not caring/understanding the value of knowledge, sure, but deliberately opposing it... that sounds terribly dumb. Not sure what anybody would get out of it

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

You would think the Internet and access to an unprecedented amount of information would have made us smarter, more emphatic, and so on.

But it turns out people are easily misled and manipulated. Social media quickly starts to feed you more of the same crap just because you watched one video. Village idiots can now form echo chambers with like-minded individuals, e.g flat Earth believers.

Those who want power will take advantage of people who fall into all this.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

There's a loud minority, but I'm not sure it's more common than in the past. In fact, (Western) young people now tend to be highly educated and interested in things previously seen as stuffy.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I don't think this will go away completely, but there is a possibility to reduce it. By improving the education system, and also helping people communicate better, we can expect this problem's severity to reduce.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

A lot of things in life are perpetual changing.

Some day the pendulum will swing back to pro intellectual. Once people comprehend the damage the just like me leadership has done.

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