Society-wide, anti-intellectualism is a problem, and can be seen as a natural result of the trend toward distrusting authority, sources of authority, distrusting sources of “received wisdom” in so many areas, distrust of received wisdom in history, in science, etc. The realm of “alternative facts” and conspiracy theories to explain why “the truth is being hidden” is just a part of the world we live in in 2023. Probably not conducive to critical thinking skills, and I’m not saying our educators are doing the best job imaginable. Just saying that the forces drawing people away from rational thought are probably not the best development in our history.
The late American historian Daniel Boorstin, was of the opinion that America grew as a series of frontier settlements, ever moving westward over the centuries. And the thing about frontiers, intellectuals don’t provide useful skills in that setting, so there was an anti-intellectual bias somewhat built into our growth through time as a nation and society.
Anyway, it’s an interesting subject, in and of itself, maybe no more than now, in an era of alternate facts and fiction-based “realities”.
Understanding Anti-Intellectualism in the U.S. Written by: Edric Huang, Jenny Dorsey, Claire Mosteller, Emily Chen Edited by: Lesley Tellez, Zandie Brockett, Hannah Seabright Graphic by: Ian Farrell Last Updated: 6/1/2021 If you want a downloadable PDF of this document, please enter your email...
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As science fiction writer Isaac Asimov
wrote in the 1980s: