This really sums it up, I think.

[pepperbear]

"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge'."

-Isaac Asimov

[lob1]

1. The pubs have been very smart about using the stupid.

[Adsos Letter]

2. Richard Hofstadter wrote about this back in the early 1960's:

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter

http://www.amazon.com/Anti-Intellectualism-American-Life-Richard-Hofstadter/dp/0394703170/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311307026&sr=1-1

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason

http://www.amazon.com/Age-American-Unreason-Susan-Jacoby/dp/0375423745

This is "a continuation" of Hoffstader's work... and a must read.

She does credit Richard in the prologue, and goes into how much worst it's become...

[The Magistrate]

3. Very True, Sir

[stevedeshazer]

4. It's now smart to be dumb.

I think you're right.

[Electric Monk]

5. Paging Carlos Jiacinto. He's "banned", so this isn't a call out.

[Marr]

6. lol

[Electric Monk]

7. That IS his schtick, and I really think it's a cancer on the social discourse.

And, he does it for lulz.

[Marr]

12. Yep. For the life of me I can't figure out why it's tolerated. n/t

[OffWithTheirHeads]

11. really? We have to go back to the Nader wars?

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Yep, Sagan made a similar point

[upi402]

10. pepperbear are you with the KSP?

:tinfoilhat:
In fact, knowledge is sneered at now. A symptom of fascism, which we are in.

[badgerpup]

13. Take a look at history...

It was considered de rigeur for the court to ape not only the opinions, but some of the defects of the brass hats/royals.
The Hapsburg lip is greatly responsible for the lisp in Castilian Spanish (note: Castilian, not the variety we speak here).

In France during the reign of the Sun King, it was 'fashionable' to be knowledgeable about everything under the sun (no pun intended!). Chemistry, biology, astronomy (as opposed to astrology), botany, art...this was a very INFORMED aristocracy.

We follow our leaders. Bill Clinton is a member of Phi Beta Kappa ...and you gotta really brainy to get into that club. Our Tv shows reflected this: anybody remember MacGuyver and how everybody wanted to grow up to be a polymath? Being smart, intelligent, informed and able to THINK was the 'in' thing

Then we got the Bush years,:dunce: where Dubya rubbed everyone's nose in the fact that he'd been a 'C-' student, yet here he was, the pResident while all the 'A' and 'B' students were in subordinate positions. He did everything but sing "Neener neener neee-ner!" on this topic.

Oh, didn't THAT notion take hold like wildfire! :yoiks:

One no longer had to strive, to practice self-discipline, to learn, to THINK...all one had to do was be a 'Christian'. Ignorant? Uninformed? Not to worry! You don't need knowledge or smarts to succeed.
:grr::banghead:


Gonna stop right here before I REALLY get on a :rant:

[liberation]

14. I found it ironic you choice of an urban legend to construe an argument about anti-intellectualism

There is no such thing as a "lisp" in Castillian Spanish, since there is no induced mispronunciation of the sibilant "s" sound. What you're referring to is the "ceceo," which deals with the sounds made by the letters "z + i/e" and "c + i/e." That sound, that non-Spaniards confound with a lisp, comes from the medieval version of the language, which was spoken well before the Hapsbugs and eventually evolved into what we know as Spanish today: the ç (the cedilla) made a "ts" sound and the z a "dz" sound.

The ceceo has a very clear purpose as it provides differentiation in meaning without need for context. For example the terms "cazar" (to hunt) and "casar" (to marry) are pronounced differently in Castillian (the first with the so-called lisp and the other without), whereas they both sound the same in the international versions of the language.


Sorry for the minor off-topic remark. :-) that urban legend has always made me cringe a bit...

[badgerpup]

15. I stand corrected...

...didn't realize that was an urban legend. :blush:

But my point remains, does it not?