|Elflocko| Posted June 26, 2015 Report Share Posted June 26, 2015 Anti-intellectualism Is Killing America Social dysfunction can be traced to the abandonment of reason Post published by David Niose on Jun 23, 2015 in Our Humanity, Naturally The tragedy in Charleston last week will no doubt lead to more discussion of several important and recurring issues in American culture—particularly racism and gun violence—but these dialogues are unlikely to bear much fruit until the nation undertakes a serious self-examination. Decrying racism and gun violence is fine, but for too long America’s social dysfunction has continued to intensify as the nation has ignored a key underlying pathology: anti-intellectualism. America is killing itself through its embrace and exaltation of ignorance, and the evidence is all around us. Dylann Roof, the Charleston shooter who used race as a basis for hate and mass murder, is just the latest horrific example. Many will correctly blame Roof's actions on America's culture of racism and gun violence, but it's time to realize that such phenomena are directly tied to the nation's culture of ignorance. In a country where a sitting congressman told a crowd that evolution and the Big Bang are“lies straight from the pit of hell,”(link is external) where the chairman of a Senate environmental panelbrought a snowball(link is external) into the chamber as evidence that climate change is a hoax, where almost one in three citizens can’t name the vice president(link is external), it is beyond dispute that critical thinking has been abandoned as a cultural value. Our failure as a society to connect the dots, to see that such anti-intellectualism comes with a huge price, could eventually be our downfall. In considering the senseless loss of nine lives in Charleston, of course racism jumps out as the main issue. But isn’t ignorance at the root of racism? And it’s true that the bloodshed is a reflection of America's violent, gun-crazed culture, but it is only our aversion to reason as a society that has allowed violence to define the culture. Rational public policy, including policies that allow reasonable restraints on gun access, simply isn't possible without an informed, engaged, and rationally thinking public. Some will point out, correctly, that even educated people can still be racists, but this shouldn’t remove the spotlight from anti-intellectualism. Yes, even intelligent and educated individuals, often due to cultural and institutional influences, can sometimes carry racistbiases. But critically thinking individuals recognize racism as wrong and undesirable, even if they aren’t yet able to eliminate every morsel of bias from their own psyches or from social institutions. An anti-intellectual society, however, will have large swaths of people who are motivated by fear, susceptible to tribalism and simplistic explanations, incapable of emotional maturity, and prone to violent solutions. Sound familiar? And even though it may seem counter-intuitive, anti-intellectualism has little to do withintelligence. We know little about the raw intellectual abilities of Dylann Roof, but we do know that he is an ignorant racist who willfully allowed irrational hatred of an entire demographic to dictate his actions. Whatever his IQ, to some extent he is a product of a culture driven by fear and emotion, not rational thinking, and his actions reflect the paranoid mentality of one who fails to grasp basic notions of what it means to be human. What Americans rarely acknowledge is that many of their social problems are rooted in the rejection of critical thinking or, conversely, the glorification of the emotional and irrational. What else could explain the hyper-patriotism(link is external) that has many accepting an outlandish notion that America is far superior to the rest of the world? Love of one’s country is fine, but many Americans seem to honestly believe that their country both invented and perfected the idea of freedom, that the quality of life here far surpasses everywhere else in the world. But it doesn't. International quality of life rankings(link is external) place America barely in the top ten. America’s rates of murder(link is external) and other violent crime dwarf most of the rest of the developed world, as does its incarceration rate(link is external), while its rates of education and scientific literacy are embarrassingly low(link is external). American schools, claiming to uphold “traditional values,” avoid fact-based sex education, and thus we have the highest rates of teen pregnancy(link is external) in the industrialized world. And those rates are notably highest where so-called “biblical values” are prominent. Go outside the Bible belt, and the rates generally trend downward(link is external). As this suggests, the impact of fundamentalist religion in driving American anti-intellectualism has been, and continues to be, immense. Old-fashioned notions of sex education may seem like a relatively minor issue to many, but taking old-time religion too seriously can be extremely dangerous in the modern era. High-ranking individuals, even in the military(link is external), see a confrontation between good and evil as biblically predicted and therefore inevitable. They relish the thought of being a righteous part of the final days. Fundamentalist religion is also a major force in denying human-caused climate change(link is external), a phenomenon that the scientific community has accepted for years. Interestingly, anti-intellectual fundamentalists are joined in their climate change denial with unusual bedfellows: corporate interests(link is external) that stand to gain from the rejection of sound science on climate. Corporate influence on climate and environmental policy, meanwhile, is simply more evidence of anti-intellectualism in action, for corporate domination of American society is another result of a public that is not thinking critically. Americans have allowed their democracy to slip away, their culture overtaken by enormous corporations that effectively control both the governmental apparatus and the media, thus shaping life aroundmaterialism and consumption. Indeed, these corporate interests encourage anti-intellectualism, conditioning Americans into conformity and passive acceptance of institutional dominance. They are the ones who stand to gain from the excessive fear and nationalism that result in militaristic foreign policy and absurdly high levels of military spending(link is external). They are the ones who stand to gain from consumers who spend money they don’t have on goods and services they don’t need. They are the ones who want a public that is largely uninformed and distracted, thus allowing government policy to be crafted by corporate lawyers and lobbyists. They are the ones who stand to gain from unregulated securities markets. And they are the ones who stand to gain from a prison-industrial complex that generates the highest rates of incarceration in the developed world. Americans can and should denounce the racist and gun-crazed culture that shamefully resulted in nine corpses in Charleston this week, but they also need to dig deeper. At the core of all of this dysfunction is an abandonment of reason. More on this subject in David Niose's latest book, Fighting Back the Right: Reclaiming America from the Attack on Reason(link is external) Follow on Twitter: @ahadave https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201506/anti-intellectualism-is-killing-america Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|kennethmw| Posted June 26, 2015 Report Share Posted June 26, 2015 Great Article. Too many in this country have a desire to see their opinion as Fact, instead of realizing that Facts are Facts, and Opinions are Opinions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted June 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2015 Great Article. Too many in this country have a desire to see their opinion as Fact, instead of realizing that Facts are Facts, and Opinions are Opinions. Or they are incapable of backing up their opinion with facts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-GoBengals- Posted June 26, 2015 Report Share Posted June 26, 2015 so do we just bomb the south or should we see how much oil they have first? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BengalBacker Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 What a load of leftist crap. Homer wrote that, didn't he? ^_^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|kennethmw| Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 What a load of leftist crap. Homer wrote that, didn't he? ^_^ Truth hurts, doesn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Dub Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 so do we just bomb the south or should we see how much oil they have first? :lol: Between the Gulf & Texas, quite a bit. I will say that the implication that the rest of the world is some enlightened Utopia of geniuses doesn't stand up to much scrutiny. I'm reminded of a pseudo-beatnik Parisian guy I used to know that would talk a lot of shit about racism in America but was completely ignorant when questioned about the race riots that were then burning up his former hometown. IOW yes it's a problem but no it's not limited to the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdWarrior Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 Where to start... First, and most obvious (and usually the best place to start evaluating any written essay), who is this author? He is the national spokesperson for atheists and secularism in the United States, and the fact that he believe his perspective is "Intellectualism" says plenty about his arrogance. Perhaps Fr. Graham, the President of Xavier, isn't intellectual because he isn't a secular atheist? The arrogance is palpable from this author. Second, I was educated at an institution known for science and engineering, which was not my forte as much as comprehension and writing skills. (And my SAT scores reflected the same.) So many of the intellectual posers in the secular movement exalt themselves as the literati, yet they couldn't solve a differential equation to save their lives. I was absolutely humbled by the math and science talent that surrounded me in college. There are some geniuses who are pure secularists and there are some geniuses of faith (who may also excel in math and science). The article posted does nothing for dialog between people of thought but alleges only that the "right" are ignorant fools. Reminds me of a few posters here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|OneHeartBeat| Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 Where to start... First, and most obvious (and usually the best place to start evaluating any written essay), who is this author? He is the national spokesperson for atheists and secularism in the United States, and the fact that he believe his perspective is "Intellectualism" says plenty about his arrogance. Perhaps Fr. Graham, the President of Xavier, isn't intellectual because he isn't a secular atheist? The arrogance is palpable from this author. Second, I was educated at an institution known for science and engineering, which was not my forte as much as comprehension and writing skills. (And my SAT scores reflected the same.) So many of the intellectual posers in the secular movement exalt themselves as the literati, yet they couldn't solve a differential equation to save their lives. I was absolutely humbled by the math and science talent that surrounded me in college. There are some geniuses who are pure secularists and there are some geniuses of faith (who may also excel in math and science). The article posted does nothing for dialog between people of thought but alleges only that the "right" are ignorant fools. Reminds me of a few posters here... Very well said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer_Rice Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 What a load of leftist crap. Homer wrote that, didn't he? ^_^ It seems to me that I did address a similar theme a few years ago when you went off the rails. Too bad you deleted that thread because people would be able to read exactly what I said at that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted June 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 It seems to me that I did address a similar theme a few years ago when you went off the rails. Too bad you deleted that thread because people would be able to read exactly what I said at that time. For the record, I am the one who deleted that thread, a decision which I later regretted. In retrospect I should have just moved it to an inaccessible part of the board for later evaluation. Lesson learned... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BengalBacker Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 It seems to me that I did address a similar theme a few years ago when you went off the rails. Too bad you deleted that thread because people would be able to read exactly what I said at that time. I never went off the rails, the rest of you did. I committed the unpardonable sin of posting news stories with video that showed groups of blacks attacking innocent whites simply because they were white, which still happens all across the country. If I had posted videos of groups of whites attacking innocent blacks simply because they were black, you all would have joined right in. Until the recent church shooting, it's been damn near impossible to find such stories because they almost never happen anymore. I was also only posting them as some examples of why it is perfectly reasonable for people to conceal carry, especially women. But you know all that, yet you still say I went off the rails. Maybe because I titled the thread "it's a jungle out there", solely because you had accused me of having a jungle mentality. It was not a jungle/blacks reference, as I was accused of, but you know that too. You had accused people who conceal carry of just wanting "cowboy justice". You were, and still are wrong. You all joined in on a politically correct witch hunt against me because truth must not be spoken unless it fits into the ideals of the left. Knockout game, get whitey night at the fair? Sweep that shit under the rug, and if you point it out you're a racist. Until those of you on the left stop that shit and are willing to discuss things that really do happen, problems won't get solved, solutions won't be found. Instead you'll continue to look under every rock like the MIchael Brown case and fan the flames screaming that the Gentle fucking Giant was an angel the racist white cop is the fucking devil and the media will be cheering you on because it gets ratings and sells papers. I stand behind every post I've ever made on this forum. I have never deleted a thread. I asked numerous times for that thread to be restored so all of you could go back and read my words again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer_Rice Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 My apologies, Backer, I thought you had deleted the thread. As for the rest, we'll disagree. Maybe we can revisit our respective notions of justice at some future moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|OneHeartBeat| Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 I would like to read that thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|kennethmw| Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 Where to start... First, and most obvious (and usually the best place to start evaluating any written essay), who is this author? He is the national spokesperson for atheists and secularism in the United States, and the fact that he believe his perspective is "Intellectualism" says plenty about his arrogance. Perhaps Fr. Graham, the President of Xavier, isn't intellectual because he isn't a secular atheist? The arrogance is palpable from this author. Second, I was educated at an institution known for science and engineering, which was not my forte as much as comprehension and writing skills. (And my SAT scores reflected the same.) So many of the intellectual posers in the secular movement exalt themselves as the literati, yet they couldn't solve a differential equation to save their lives. I was absolutely humbled by the math and science talent that surrounded me in college. There are some geniuses who are pure secularists and there are some geniuses of faith (who may also excel in math and science). The article posted does nothing for dialog between people of thought but alleges only that the "right" are ignorant fools. Reminds me of a few posters here... The author, while not infallible, hits on a number of correct points, which if you are true to your "scientific background", you would have to admit. This country does have a serious problem with education, or the lack thereof. I personally, was educated by the scientific community, while at the same time, being a man of faith, so I personally have an insight into both worlds, and to me, a large number of people on the faith side have lost their way. They spend their time cherrypicking the bible, especially the old testament, to provide cover for outdated and ignorant views, and act like the scientific community and it's people are imps from Satan himself, all while basking under the technological improvements that science has provided. The author is more right on what he says, than he is wrong, and though not all people on the right are ignorant fools, there is a true justification that a large percentage is found under that tent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdWarrior Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 Oh don't get me wrong, I get as disgusted as many others at the some of the ignorant bible thumpers who seem to have completely lost track of the Jesus who walked with sinners and chastened the established powers for their self-righteousness. Arrogance exists on both ends of the spectrum. I particularly enjoy having been raised Catholic and educated in Catholic schools through high school, although American Catholics are a never-ending thorn in the side to Rome. We tend to defy stereotyping because our political views are all over the map even though our formal hierarchy tries to reign us in. As an example, I am not opposed to gay civil marriage. (I would not, however, try to force a religious denomination to sanction it or perform the ceremony, nor would I require that a religious school be forced to hire gay married teachers.) This is probably another thread... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Dub Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 I never went off the rails, the rest of you did. I committed the unpardonable sin of posting news stories with video that showed groups of blacks attacking innocent whites simply because they were white, which still happens all across the country. Woah, pump the brakes there Cletus 'fore you blow a gasket. Climb down from your cross & let's pull on the hipwaders and get into this Bog of Dumb Shit. First, for someone so quick to accuse others of race baiting, WTF would you call that post of yours you reference? 2nd, you have no idea what those videos were. You'll pick apart a dashcam video released by the PD themselves then turn around and post random shit off youtube like it's gospel. Can you understand why I think you're full of shit sometimes? You truly don't seem this dim, so I can only assume it's by design and that's a little infuriating. Like, to the point where I wonder why I'm even bothering. Maybe I'm giving you too much credit? Anyway, those videos you posted. What they mostly show is some white person on the wrong end of a fight. That's it. Maybe some of them were actually security cam footage of a mugging or a crime. And maybe that white guy just got done assaulting someone's grannie. Who knows? Certainly not us. Yes, white people also commit crimes. The vast majority, guess what, do not. Just like every other group of people, and there's the rub. You see what you want to see there. You post a video of poor innocent white guy with an inflammatory title and you're happy to swallow the story whole. Think about that for a minute. If I had posted videos of groups of whites attacking innocent blacks simply because they were black, you all would have joined right in. Until the recent church shooting, it's been damn near impossible to find such stories because they almost never happen anymore You just keep waving your bare ass around. This is what I'm talking about, the "B-b-b-but black people are racist sometimes, too!" Like that offsets, for example, the KKK having their founder enshrined in parks across the South. I mean, again, WTF? Are you this ignorant of history and race in America? I can't imagine how. Yes, all racism is bad. Difference being one particular group of, historically, particularly racist people have been in power in America for a long, long time. That'd be us. Do you understand the difference between institutional racism enforced by the police and some kid calling you a cracker? I would hope so but I'm not so sure. Also, it's "damn near impossible to find such stories" because you're too busy looking for street fight videos on fuckin' Youtube. This should get you started: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-black-churches-violence-20150619-story.html And of course there's the 1950's-70's, but hey that's ancient history. Might as well be talking about the Peloponnesian War amirite? Never mind that some of the people shot in Charleston probably desegregated their schools growing up. Let the past be the past, sure, that is until it kicks in the door with an empty head backfilled with the exact same sort of bullshit you're spouting and shoots 9 people dead. Hurdurr and then suddenly it's a BIIG DEALLLL" ...smfh. I was also only posting them as some examples of why it is perfectly reasonable for people to conceal carry, especially women. BECAUSE BLACK PEOPLE? If that's your attitude I wouldn't trust you with a slingshot. But you know all that, yet you still say I went off the rails. Maybe because I titled the thread "it's a jungle out there", solely because you had accused me of having a jungle mentality. It was not a jungle/blacks reference, as I was accused of, but you know that too Buddy you're not even close to the rails. You're in a padded room makin' choo-choo noises and flinging your shit at the orderlies. If you seriously can't grasp why your race-baiting shitpost titled "It's a jungle out there".. Really guy? You really don't understand any of this? I don't believe you. I can't even bother with the rest of your bullshit because it's just more of the same, scary black man "but I'm not a racist!" nonsense. Just.. Pull your head out of your ass, please. [Dear White Baby Jesus can the football season please start so we can all go back to being stupid about things that don't actually matter?] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|SF2| Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 So in a country of 315 million, the actions of a lone gunman with a Dorothy Hamill haircut speaks for the entire South. I still am waiting for the arrest of the leader of the secret racist group this guy elonged to but alas, they haven't found it yet. BTW, if we are going to blame this on "anti-intellectualism", well then you have to start at what group has taken over the school systems and universities in this country and have run them for the past 30 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|SF2| Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 The author, while not infallible, hits on a number of correct points, which if you are true to your "scientific background", you would have to admit. This country does have a serious problem with education, or the lack thereof. I personally, was educated by the scientific community, while at the same time, being a man of faith, so I personally have an insight into both worlds, and to me, a large number of people on the faith side have lost their way. They spend their time cherrypicking the bible, especially the old testament, to provide cover for outdated and ignorant views, and act like the scientific community and it's people are imps from Satan himself, all while basking under the technological improvements that science has provided. The author is more right on what he says, than he is wrong, and though not all people on the right are ignorant fools, there is a true justification that a large percentage is found under that tent. I graduated from Alter High School in 1982 and no such thing happened to me. Religion classes were pretty pathetic except the class that examined most of the major religions form a historic perspective. Took a lot of advanced science classes where God was never mentioned. I imagine if one is weak of mind and gullible to the rantings of an old priest blabbering damnation you might have been hoodwinked but the overwhelming majority of my classmates, many still close friends were not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Dub Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Dub Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 So in a country of 315 million, the actions of a lone gunman with a Dorothy Hamill haircut speaks for the entire South. I still am waiting for the arrest of the leader of the secret racist group this guy elonged to but alas, they haven't found it yet. Yeah, funny how that works isn't it? I guess he took all the pictures posted to his website with an invisible selfie-stick. Lone gunman, of course. Good one on the Dorothy Hamil reference, though. I had a sensible chuckle. If you think it's ok to arrest the leader of a nationwide racist terror group, which seems like a good idea to me, there are several Grand Lizards of the various KKK cells that are public. I'll say it again; membership or support of the KKK should be illegal and treated much like being a member of ISIS. We're jailing people for so much as text messaging a suspected member of ISIS. Which group has killed more Americans? I've got no love for religious extremists of any stripe, but how is ambushing a military convoy terrorism & Charleston isn't? BTW, if we are going to blame this on "anti-intellectualism", well then you have to start at what group has taken over the school systems and universities in this country and have run them for the past 30 years. Bureaucrats? The glut of lawyers we created by making higher education something best afforded by choosing the highest-paying degrees (eg; not in Education)? Typically the only way to pay off student debt in the less lucrative fields is by going to work for the very same university where you bought your degree. The tenure track stuff maybe turns Academia into an echo-chamber? I'm admittedly out of my depth there but I will say it doesn't have to be any one thing that's at fault. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|SF2| Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 Yeah, funny how that works isn't it? I guess he took all the pictures posted to his website with an invisible selfie-stick. Lone gunman, of course. Good one on the Dorothy Hamil reference, though. I had a sensible chuckle. If you think it's ok to arrest the leader of a nationwide racist terror group, which seems like a good idea to me, there are several Grand Lizards of the various KKK cells that are public. I'll say it again; membership or support of the KKK should be illegal and treated much like being a member of ISIS. We're jailing people for so much as text messaging a suspected member of ISIS. Which group has killed more Americans? I've got no love for religious extremists of any stripe, but how is ambushing a military convoy terrorism & Charleston isn't? Bureaucrats? The glut of lawyers we created by making higher education something best afforded by choosing the highest-paying degrees (eg; not in Education)? Typically the only way to pay off student debt in the less lucrative fields is by going to work for the very same university where you bought your degree. The tenure track stuff maybe turns Academia into an echo-chamber? I'm admittedly out of my depth there but I will say it doesn't have to be any one thing that's at fault. So let me get this straight, since the photos were not selfies, obviously the members of a massive racist terror group (KKK right,) took the photos. I mean you are just throwing massive amounts of shit on the wall hoping something sticks. You are aware most cameras have self timers correct? So now you want to arrest people you don't agree with before they commit a crime? Well Seig Fucking Heil to you to buddy. The KKK is a discredited joke although I imagine everyday you pray a KKK affiliated group of idiots would commit a heinous crime so you can go back to being a victim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Dub Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 Well Seig Fucking Heil to you to buddy. The KKK is a discredited joke although I imagine everyday you pray a KKK affiliated group of idiots would commit a heinous crime so you can go back to being a victim. :pointlaff: Well y'know I've tried praying they don't yet the shit keeps happening. Thinking about sacrificing a goat next time & seeing where that gets us, really follow the recipe Old Testament style. Should I report you to you now? I'm confused as to policy & procedure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8AmlhLl8lQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|SF2| Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 :pointlaff: Well y'know I've tried praying they don't yet the shit keeps happening. Thinking about sacrificing a goat next time & seeing where that gets us, really follow the recipe Old Testament style. Should I report you to you now? I'm confused as to policy & procedure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8AmlhLl8lQ Really? Wow, you really are damaged goods aren't you? Didn't even waste my time with the 74 year old cartoon but I am sure it fits into your agenda. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Dub Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 Really? Wow, you really are damaged goods aren't you? You really are drunk with power, aren't you? Rules don't apply to you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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