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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[–] kromem 1 points 1 year ago (5 children)

People will remain stupid. But I'm somewhat hopeful that in the next few decades we see AI develop enough that it truly constitutes superintelligence relative to us, and that the scalability of it tips the scales of the continual standoff between intelligence and stupidity forever.

Because I have little hope for humanity overcoming its own multiplying stupidity on its own.

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[–] MissJinx 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're talking about mostly religion. Not one specific but for all of them to work they have to dumb people down, otherwise why would you follow crazy rules if you can have your faith at home without crazyness?

I believe that in a far future, as humanity gather more and more knowledge keeping religion up will be kind of hard, but until them we will have to go through the "dark ages of christianism" where our lifes will be controled by some old conservarive people. But they will die out.

[–] Chunk -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Unfortunately I don't think this is mostly religion. A lot of people are stupid. Sincere question, when was the last time you talked to a normie?

I chatted with my hairdresser yesterday. She didn't know:

  • what a DMZ is.
  • who SBF or Elizabeth Holmes are.
  • that there is an anti trust case against Google.
  • the word "query" as in "search query".

For Halloween my girlfriend and I are going as SBF and Elizabeth Holmes. She commented that "no one outside [my] little circle is going to know who those people are." I started to disagree but, in a way, she's right.

Don't get me wrong, she's wonderful and hilarious and chill af. She's just a bit dumb. And that's okay but it's true.

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[–] OptimusPhillip 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think the claim that the world is anti-intellectual is somewhat biased. I don't know if that's a sampling bias, a cognitive bias, or some other kind of bias. But one way or another, I feel like you're overblowing things.

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[–] TORFdot0 0 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Is the world anti-intellectual or anti-“know-it-all”-poindexter?

I haven’t noticed anti-intellectualism but the reject of disrespectful and bad-faith discourse.

This is probably inevitable because science has been politicized in America.

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[–] Jakdracula 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

No.

It’s human nature to want to be the best, the most loved, the top dog. It helps to propagate the species.

If someone is smarter than you, it digs at the very core of that, and becomes a threat.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

lol so you're saying that you think we're genetically programmed to mistrust "smart" people? I think you're really reaching here

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

I think 'human nature' is far too broad to define in such a way, and making objective statements about it is wrong. In my opinion, the only definite thing you can say is that humans act out of self-interest (as do all living beings), but the motivation derived from it doesn't have to be destructive.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (4 children)

From what I've heard, this is mostly a US phenomenon.

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[–] calypsopub -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I say we should provide UBI to everyone, legalize drugs, and let the stupid ones rot on their couch doing weed, playing video games, and streaming anime or porn. Hopefully they'll be too lazy to vote or commit crimes, and the rest of us can work on creating a better society with them safely out of the way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That's...actually acceptable to me as well. The only problem is we'll still have highly ambitious sociopaths who want to grab the reins.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (6 children)

In my experience, anti-intellectualism is a yank trait, not a worldwide trait. Ask a German, or someone from Japan, for confirmation.

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