Encountering anti-intellectualism

[newfoundsky]

I attend Computer Classes filled to the brim with people who love guns, hate the government, live in fear of the internet kill switch (you would not believe), and probably the most educated people I've met in my entire life.

So no not lately

However, when I was in middle school I was outright loathed (living in the redneck part of Florida, EG Santa Rosa County) for getting good grades to the point were I would do just enough to get by, something that carried over to the rest of my life and something I've just now defeated. I'm currently a straight A student.

However, I've always found it ironic how I could calculate just how much I had to do to get a high or medium C just by looking at the assignments in my head. . .

 

[Benny Blanco]

Oddly, I have the experience of getting anti-intellectual shit from people at a super-selective grammar school. In my 1st year (aged 10-11) I used the word "penultimate" and got the piss taken out of me for a couple of years for that.

Bear in mind this is a school where Latin is a compulsory subject for the first two years and where Oxbridge admission rates are about the highest in UK for the state school system and marvel at the paradox.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

I go to a tech school in a really conservative area.

So, yeah. I've dealt with it.

 

[hyker]

I usually ignore them
I learned through the experience of being an unintellectual dickhead that being ignored is the most annoying thing someone can do

 

[Eisenfaust]

a teenage mother who had a job (oh so briefly) where i work was REALLY looking forward to getting on the dole and not having to do anything... kept saying things like "yous people are all so stupid for going to school!"

when repeatedly reminded that the dole payments weren't exactly... extensive, she would yell and walk off... it was rather odd

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Now I am burnt out on college too, so instead of getting a little piece of paper that will let me get a real job, I'm lying here awake at nearly 7 a.m. typing a longwinded essay-rant that no one will read on a website devoted to what most of the world considers an expensive toy, in my freezing cold room where to supplement my meager income I modify swords, airsoft, and nerf guns to sell to my fellow nerds at profit.

First off, I agree with the "you are special" point you are making, but I will briefly add to that what I have said in the comment I made before this one. The biggest problem that the US school systems have is that they emphasize to students that they have to do great in every subject, or they won't get anywhere in life(with each passing year colleges are more and more turning into this as well). They say that it is important to be a person that is well rounded in everything.

Well that is all fine and dandy, but such teaching and thought breeds people that are just okay in most things and horrible in the rest. They end up not having a key skill that they do best. The problem is that to get a good job, people have to have one key important skill that is practically above excellent.

Now to the reason I quoted you and also something I mentioned in a previous comment before this one:

I hate to be the bringer of bad news and be a downer, but that little piece of paper that you are trying to get, really has no effect on you getting a job in the career(s) it is used for unless:

A.) You have a connection with someone on the inside that will help you get hired.(Which to me is an underhanded practice that shouldn't be allowed, since way too many times I have seen it stop people that are 10 times more qualified for the position from getting the job.) A friend saying so and so is a good person shouldn't count.

B.) You have taken part in an internship that has lasted for 2 or more years.

The reason this is is because the vast majority of employers, over 95%, are going to tell you that that college education you are getting doesn't count as experience for getting hired.

Now I don't know where you live in the US, but that is the way things are in the Midwest.

 

[wammnebu]

Yes, but I have begun to join them. Dont get me wrong, i love learning but I dont like intellectualists

 

[Kenko]

People were surprised at me reading a book on my break at work and made jokes about it that I only read a book that thick and in english to pretend to be smart.

 

[Xanian]

*Snip*

*For God's sake, snip.*

@ Enamour--I understand the way American's come off...but Education is not always a valuable currency to every group here. I think a lot of students take college and high school for granted and use it less to attain understanding of the world they develop in and more as a way of socially networking...which works better in the long run. It isn't that it's wrong to be intellectual...it's that most of us can't afford the giant price tag that comes along with it.


@ Sonic Doctor--I think part of the experience issue is the baby boomers not moving on or retiring...there are a lot of experienced workers still out there and few show any signs of moving on, our generation has a lot problems to face in terms of "growing up" as the things that would be "normal" aren't happening any more. Things cost more proportionally, even with things like inflation factored in. People are living longer, healthier lives and aren't dying off...thus fewer jobs are opening up for us. Try working in another country for awhile and see if that experience pays off.

OT--For my parents and grandparents, even though they [mostly] grew up in America, high school degrees, let alone college, were kind of silly. They couldn't afford to NOT work and in the cultural backdrop, it wasn't important. They didn't outright discourage me from going to college so much as were confused why a woman would want a doctorate, (I've only got my bachelor's now, I'm saving up the money for the next step). They don't understand how interesting and exciting education is for me. It's not their fault, it's just out of their loop. For my Dad...he is an electrical engineer. An old school one. He's self-taught and worked his way up from being the guy in the back of a truck dropped off at job sites to owner of his own business. He starts to sweat when he sees guys with degrees or has to take a test to renew his license, but always comes back with the same thing. "Damn guys can't even tie their own shoelaces." Some things school can't teach, and sometimes intelligent people don't have the tell-tale letters after their name.

While I'm not specifically either, I can empathize with both the intellectual and the anti-intellectual. For some people, life leads to tough choices and they don't have the luxury of intellectual pursuits. I think it's particularly prevalent in America where the class divisions are more subtle and we find ourselves looking for new ways to one up each other. My parents understand that college degrees are valuable, but they don't understand why or how, they just know that people with them don't have to work as hard to get what they want. Those who do know about these things don't know to pass on that information.

I stumbled through high school and college and went to those boring free Saturday seminars to figure out how you know which classes to take and how to register, things others would think is redundant.

I could do a whole argument on education and class divisions in American Society...but this is probably not the place for it. Either way, people with traditional intellectual badge of "Education" might accidentally flaunt it and discredit someone who doesn't have fancy paper. That person will not like having their intelligence questioned...and so it goes.

 

[Teixas]

Happens a few times to myself..

people sometimes tell me that i think in a weird way(engineering student ), and makes jokes about it nothing too serious but i respect their opinion as long as it doesnt affect me in any know dimension.
note that by respect i mean i dont feed their beliefs

 

[A Pious Cultist]

my science teacher made us watch The Core for god sucks. And not to poke holes in it, to actually educate us.

Wait...



What?

 

[The Salty Vulcan]

my science teacher made us watch The Core for god sakes. And not to poke holes in it, to actually educate us.

Wait...



What?

Oh it gets worse. My 12th grade biology teacher was staunchly in favour of creationism so we got little to no books, or reports or anything like that on the subject aside from the bare basics. She also peed in a petri-dish for an experiment.

 

[Thisbedutch]

That's an interesting idea. You are heavily subsidized, if you aren't completing your education in the normal amount of time, which probably means you aren't the best student and/or aren't actually focussed, then its reaonable you pay a bit more of the share.

That's quite the generalisation. And would it be worth punishing those who need more time due to events beyond their control (illness, for example) just to get more money out of students who couldn't be bothered?

 

[ramboondiea]

well all the time, im currently attending university, the town it situated in is quite small with a very large student population, the result is that the large majority of the town, (the average age being 45 (excluding students from the average calculations) will blame students for any transgressions that occur, its gotten to the point were if you announce your a student these people will attempt to chastise you for it. this isnt to say that every student in town is a mature individual, but someof the bile that they spew out in the local paper is disgusting. the amusing part is the students provide the town with the most money, without the town would be a very different and poorer place

Your not at Lancaster University are you? That kind of shit happens here all the time.

Also I grew up in a family of anti-intellectuals who think the only reason you go to university is so you can get a better job and so do not understand why I have taken History which is apparently a 'pointless' subject.

no Edgehill university which is in Ormskirk, not that big of a town whose population is largly students and the elderly, seems those two just cant mix ha

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Also, he apparently supports our governments new ruling that students who take extended time for their studies are fined ?3000,- (roughly $4069.2 USD) for each consecutive year after the first extra year taken. (Granted, loafing requires some proper consequences, but COME ON.)

That's an interesting idea. You are heavily subsidized, if you aren't completing your education in the normal amount of time, which probably means you aren't the best student and/or aren't actually focussed, then its reaonable you pay a bit more of the share.

I think it is a horrible idea. This normal amount of time stuff is crap because the amount of classes at once that a person has to take to complete a degree in a 'normal' amount of time is ludicrously hard for the average person to juggle and stay sane. Statistically, I was the average American college student: I could easily hand 4 classes(which is the minimum to be a full-time student), but 5 classes was pushing it and I would barely get by during those semesters.

The fact is that many people just can't handle a schedule that gives them no reasonable time each to be themselves and do what they want.

It isn't because these people are lazy and don't want to do the work needed. It is because they aren't mentally capable (nothing to do with intelligence) with dealing with such an excessive schedule that is needed to complete college in the 'normal' amount of time.

This is a disadvantage, but it is no reason to add the extra disadvantage of an unfair burden of extra money that they have to pay back.

It is like the situation where people stupidly say that rich people should pay a higher percentage of taxes, because they succeeded and got rich. The people seem to think that rich people are paying the same amount of taxes as them, when in reality the rich people are already paying more than other people, because 10% of 30,000 isn't the same as 10% of 1,000,000. The people think because rich people have a special situation, they should have to pay gross amounts more.

Well, with the college thing, it would be stupid that people that aren't special and have a disadvantage have to pay more. I and many other average everyday people would be wronged if we had to pay more because we couldn't take the crazy overloaded schedule.

People shouldn't be punished for being above-average/special, average, or below average.

 

[SimuLord]

I'm a business major. My colleagues in business school constantly denigrate humanities majors and art majors and other people who, let's face it, run intellectual circles around us dumbfucks who are only in school to chase money, the single least intellectual thing a person can do. These were people who treated the freshman and sophomore liberal arts core as a chore to be overcome (or finessed) rather than an opportunity to expand the mind beyond dollars and cents.

There's a reason I don't date business-major girls. Because they are profoundly unattractive. Physically hot? Hell yeah. But extremely unattractive for their disdain for anything that isn't about money.

(so who DO I date? Humanities, arts, and elementary education majors. The first two for their intellect, the last for their tendency to be potentially awesome moms because they're clearly good with kids.)

 

[AudienceOfOne1]

Intelligence, logic and comprehensive languages set human beings apart from other animals. However due to a large proportion of the people I have met, I can say that these qualities are very under appreciated.

It seems sex comes first regardless of species.

 

[Mercurio128]

Well. There's certainly an anti-intellectual culture in certain areas of the world. I know that with all the shows that glamourise being a total airhead, I've ended up having about 5 people I can talk to without needing to explain every second word, two of which have English as a second language.

Look at it this way, though. Most of the people who tell you not to bother with an education won't go as far as you will.

I have this too, it's nice to have people who you can talk to without having to self-censor. I found that all the way through school I altered the way I spoke around different groups of people (we all do it). But that was mainly a function of being forced to be around them all day every day for 7 years, it's not like I disliked any of them, I just felt uncomfortable being myself around some people.

It wasn't till uni and work that I found some friends who I could just talk to about anything, from football to science without feeling at all self-conscious.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

Of course i encounter this pretty often. I live in an Area that was a few decades ago known for nothing but coalmining , steelworks and chemistry. After the coalmines are shut down one by one the country tried to build a new basis on research and service, with success so far. Problem is , we got a huge mass of coal black hard working people that are of close to no use (except the few mining engineers that could get trained for other fields) you can smell the friction between the old fashioned part of population and us new generation just by this information.
My university is in the middle of an traditional industrial city, well as most cities are here, in certain areas of town, using the wrong kind of language can get you into trouble. But well, we live here our whole lives, we speak the common dialect as good as them, just with the difference that we can do otherwise (at uni we actually use a mix-up most of the time, which is kinda entertaining for outsiders sometimes).