this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025
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Shit Americans Say
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I'm confused about this entire book/library sequence. Is John saying that libraries and reading are leftist things?
The thing about anti-intellectualism is that its proponents never consider the possibility that they themselves can be "intellectual". They think of intellectual people as having some sort of inborn superpower and that they have no choice but to be grovellingly deferential toward them, which they would rightly hate. But they can just read books and become intellectual themselves π€·β The shit's open source. And it's open source even if you're poor, because of LIBRARIES!
Right Wing politics are based around hierarchy, the idea of being above other people. Rich > poor, American > immigrant, me > you. In order for right wing propaganda to work on idiots like this, they need to make it seem like the people who aren't falling for it are below them in some way. This narrative that intellectuals are either brainwashed or knowingly brainwashing other people compensates for the noticeable difference in smarts and makes that imagined reality that much more tempting. They're not "uneducated", they just naturally knew better than to get brainwashed because of their massively superior true American brain! Fascism needs to be flattering in order to be convincing because it has nothing else except fear to offer.
But these people don't want to. They're tired, frustrated, and likely their school failed them such that reading is just another reminder that they don't know so many things.
It's easier to denigrate those who have read and learned than to confront the mountain that is their own ignorance. "I could climb that mountain, if I wanted." they might say, "But why would I do something so stupid when I'm doing such important stuff right now?? The people wasting their time climbing it must have something wrong with them."
Part of what used to make me read what I did was people saying "oh that's too difficult, you'll never understand it or enjoy it!".
It was like...challenge accepted, bitch.
Relatedly, I think this is related to why at some point people convinced themselves that they were completely rational without really trying. A lot of the people -- on the right especially -- have convinced themselves that they live on some type of post-rational plane and that everything they do can be rationally justified. If you point at any of the pile of fallacies about one particular thing they do, say, or believe, they will try to distract you with their credentials or use other illogical arguments to defend those things...one at a time.
semi-related anecdote
Many of the people I worked with in tech that are "libertarian leaning" operate this way. They think because they work in tech that they are, by default, rational thinkers. I would also say that most of the people that are like this are extremely bad at their jobs if you dive into the details. Because, unlike them, I have found that working in software has taught me that I am very fallible and often irrational in minor ways. Programming a machine that executes nearly flawless logic at speeds the human mind can't match demonstrates plainly that we are endlessly fallible, often emotional, and almost never understand the full implications of our actions. But many of these people never seem to learn that lesson, and on more than one occasion I have had them discover "flaws in the compiler" that were simply them being idiotic upon closer inspection.
If you read any Greek philosophy they basically say the opposite thing, that man can occasionally reach for rationality or try to behave rationally, but that it is by far not a person's default mode of operation. They considered it basically communing with the Gods during the rare moments that man could even achieve a scrap of it for a period of time.
Also scihub, libgen, etc.
But if they read books their opinions would be changed, they would become impure. Communication is an attack.
education overwhelmingly refutes their most deeply held beliefs time and time again. of course they reject it.
Really just all information. They're perfect just the way they are, therefore learning is defiling ones self.