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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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't think anyone's anti intellectual, people use rhetoric to defend their ideas, to defend their ways, to justify what they've already done. If you used your intelligence and started to agree with people, no one would challenge you, you wouldn't run into anti-intellectual bias.

When you challenge people, or disagree with them, they're going to use rhetoric against you, and that often is portrayed as anti-intellectual. If they think you're a threat they'll attack you by any means possible

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (8 children)

It's not. We'd still be hitting rocks if we were anti intellectual.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

People who believe they are intellectual rarely are, or they would be able to couch their points in more accessible ways.

[โ€“] Gorilladrums 1 points 1 year ago

Anti-intellectualism stems from poor education. It's really that simple. People who aren't taught critical thinking skills aren't able to criticize what they digest properly, and so they become susceptible to propaganda and misinformation. They form their views on limited understanding and what emotionally sounds good to them. They lack the skills to verify information, understand the importance of being principled, or question why they're against intellectualism. Doing these things may sound obvious to many, but these are surprisingly hard skills for a lot of people to understand and apply consistently.

This is the reason why we have so many extremists, why so many people falling for obvious propaganda, why so many people being hypocrites and lacking the awareness as to why that is bad, why so many people who can't take criticism, why so many people not knowing how to take in new information, why so many people who can't understand simple concepts, and why so many people who think they're smart and everybody else is dumb.

The lack of critical thinking skills takes years to erode and years to build. It is very hard to set ourselves back on the right track without making strong, fundamental changes to the education system. The current drought of these skills is affecting everybody all across the political spectrum. It is true whether the anti-intellectuals are left wing, right wing, or chicken wing. It might even affect you, the reader, without realizing it. If we want the future generations to have it better, then we need to have as many people as possible push for comprehensive reforms to the education system.

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