Anti Intellectualism - Blog Posts
Oklahoma is attempting to pass a bill that would ban explicit romance novels. Authors, narrators, and sellers could all face fines of up to $100,000 and up to 10 years in jail for each instance.
If you live in OK, call your representative and tell them this bill should not be allowed to pass.
This is likely a test case. Republicans will try to pass it in OK and if it passes other states will likely try to pass similar laws.
In the meantime, get physical copies of books you like. Download those pdfs. Archive your AO3 stories and keep them on a physical hard drive. (Storing those files in the cloud could be problematic in the future as the company managing the cloud service can see what your files are)
Gone are the days where books were well-beloved. Reading comprehension has been at an absolute low, where students cannot read through a single book. All the ideas presented by authors will slowly be lost to time, as no one except a few will read. Even with these, it’s difficult to properly read given how fast-paced our world is.
School is no longer a center for learning. Students who actually wish to learn are punished for their curiosity. They are seen as outcasts, nerds, weirdos, etc.
Children are exposed to screens at a young age. They see bright, nauseating neon colors daily, fingers and eyes moving. Patience is a virtue growing rarer and rarer, and along with it cognitive function.
Corporations grow bigger. Prices go higher. Salaries remain the same, for decades. And more decades. Each generation cannot afford what their predecessors could.
Art is an empty husk, no longer filled with meaning. It is beauty with no soul. It is a flower vase with no flower inside. It is a masterpiece created by reluctant artists, whose main goal is to survive.
Oppression persists, growing in strength. Politicians become stronger, no longer needing to sound intelligent. The crowds absorb their words without a second thought, as if under a spell.
Mother Nature is getting sicker day by day. Yet everyone continues on with their lives as if the day isn’t getting hotter. As if CO2 isn’t steadily climbing. As if the plastic in the ocean mysteriously disappeared. As if Nature will fix our shit, when it is the one dying.
We all look at these horrors, wondering if we are the ones insane instead. Isn’t it easier to stop thinking about these?
Maybe we are looking for someone. The next Martin Luther King. The next Tesla or Einstein. The next Mandela. The next Shakespeare. The next da Vinci. Regardless, we are looking for a saviour. Someone to take the fall for society’s cruelty.
Perhaps the worst thing of all is that WE have no choice but to be the ones who act.
Gorilla Of Destiny, who call themselves "world leading researcher in magic science", has a few words to add that just speak to me.
[...] I want to talk about why anti-intellectualism is so important to them, and then ways that you as an individual might be able to help against it.
Now, the first big reason they do this is because they're wrong.
[...] if you start listening to the expert, then you're going to realize they're wrong and not just wrong, obviously wrong.
There's also a few other reasons, like they don't want you actually thinking critically, and that's what a lot of degrees teach.
So what can you do? Well, there's a few things, but it is difficult. Read. Read anything, honestly. Non-fiction, fiction, doesn't matter, just keep reading.
[...] being able to research will be a very important skill in the coming years.
The other thing you've got to do is make sure you're not putting down different studies. STEM degrees are not inherently better. Trust me, I did one. All education is valuable, especially in the arts.
Sometimes they go after specific intellectuals rather than all of them at once. [...] Though from what I can tell, this is just the opening gambit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBnA6AhbTEs
The Enemy
The Professors Are the Enemy.
So, according to J.D. Vance, I am the enemy. For people like him, education and knowledge are almost as frightening as empathy and compassion.