(August 6, 2019 at 3:05 pm)Brian37 Wrote: So just now on Twitter, I ran into a an angry Tweet form an IDIOT getting angry at someone else for calling dolphins mammals. The idiot did a all caps shout Tweet insisting that dolphins were fish because they swim in the water.
They should not be angry at the person that told them the truth, they should get angry at the person that sold them the lie.
I swear, America is regressing and that is scary.
There's a classic book called Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, by Richard Hofstadter.
He starts by defining what he means by calling someone an intellectual, and he identifies two characteristics:
~ An intellectual takes ideas seriously, as having importance even if they don't lead to money or fame or a better mousetrap.
~ An intellectual takes ideas playfully, being willing to spend time on ideas he doesn't agree with, and systems that are currently way out of fashion.
So it isn't the same thing as just being smart, because a smart guy who spent all his time on more practical pursuits wouldn't necessarily be an intellectual.
And Hofstadter makes a persuasive case that the US has pretty much always been suspicious of intellectuals. We prefer people who use their smarts to make money -- or we just prefer people who make money, with or without smarts.
I think the only intellectual character in pop culture in recent years has been Hannibal Lector.