Why is anti-intellectualism such a problem right now, and how can this cultural cancer be eradicated?
You don't have to spend five minutes in /pol/ to see how badly confirmation bias can shape people's worldviews. I saw Trump coming from miles away. Clearly people aren't satisfied with the political system as-is, after the embarrassing GOP pool of 2012, and the inevitability of a Hillary nomination. People want politicians they can relate to, that get shit done.
I don't think relatability has to go hand-in-hand with willful ignorance. Intellectuals have allowed themselves to be pigeonholed by society into an ivory tower stereotype. We need somebody from within academia to resonate with the masses the same way Trump does. Is it possible /lit/? Or are academics just too autistic for political discourse?
Well, although people can definitely have lesser inclinations to intellectual hobbies than other people, a serious repulsion to them definitely doesn't come naturally. I'm not athletic in the least, but I can appreciate the immense work athletes into their chosen sports. Like you pointed out, this doesn't seem to be the case with anything intellectual--it's seen as snobby, as a mere attempt to garner praise from other people. This is often not the case (though there are quite a few people who pretend to like those things to for that very reason.)
But honestly: not everyone has received the same level of education or guidance as you have. Perhaps you didn't even have these things--but still ended up hearing things from other people, whether in real life or online, that boosted your confidence to learn more. Perhaps you are just naturally ambitious and self-assured, and didn't need anyone to tell you that you that you're smart enough to learn.
But what I see very frequently among people who seem to hate anything "intellectual" is that they have a very deep, but hidden desire to be "smart." Maybe they had a rough time at school, making them believe they just couldn't learn. Or they were taught genuinely good authors in such a mind-numbing way that they can't even be reminded of them without reliving high-school.
Be sympathetic. Try to educate these people rather than simply jeer at them, as if you were somehow superior. Expose them to new material, gently. Let them know that they too can learn.
People need to stop buying into social ideologies. Despising intellectual endeavors because they are believed to be high-brow or too upper-crust is idiotic. Only when people start to see ideology for what it is, will this pass. But, then, once the main-stream does begin seeing ideology for what it is, god knows what that would do to society on a mass-scale.
>>7816451
Democracy made it profitable to pander to the tastes and opinions of proles.
That andfundamentalist Christianity defending itself against a world that's made it untenable intellectually
>>7816451
Noam Chomsky, for example, is one of the few intellectuals who seems to be respected by all classes alike, but the issue is that someone like him, no matter how relevant his theories may be, does not have the traits the majority associate with a good leader. Most people would rather be lead by a person who is 'brave' or 'confident' rather than a soft-spoken, introverted thinker. I don't think its anything to do with academia being 'high brow', rather that academics understand the stupidity of politics and choose not to play the game. I've always thought that the reason for that is something to do with the psychological flight or fight response- people want to feel as though they are 'protected', whatever that means.
The average American reads at a middle school level and fucks his sister. That's the problem.
