Since the "I wanna drink a beer with my president crowd" voted for the first village idiot in George W. Bush. I can't tell you how differently I look at people because of their ignorance, selfishness, and hate. I was raised to know and care about what is going on in the world & about what is right

Being even semi intelligent today is painful in the extreme.

One of the more scary parts of this, too.

Honestly? I wish I could be sad. I’m just so fucking angry at everything and everyone right now. Sometimes when I’ve watched a sad movie, I realize I really needed a good cry. This is what MAGA has done, then they laugh and ridicule that pain.

I met a college professor from a college that has a mix of conservativism in it. One of the more popular students has proudly proclaimed, aloud, several times, that he has never read a book and will never read one. I’d fail him based on the statement alone. In college! 😳

Then why is he taking a seat from someone who'd actually read books and learn?

Probably money he'll probably be another Trump

That’s just ridiculous. How would they have been able to graduate high school without ever having read a book? That’s pretty pathetic if it’s true. It’s not saying much for the Education system where that person lives.

That is crazy. I was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. A state usually near top-rated for public education. I knew of two people that graduated my high school without knowing how to read. No matter how many, every time I hear the statistic that half of Americans read below a 4th grade level, I shudder

I don’t get it. I read about 2 books a week! I have read thousands of books in my lifetime. I’ve given hundreds away. I have a very small house now. I can’t imagine my life without BOOKS. I only like REAL BOOKS. 📕

My foster grandkids went to a school in Missouri where only the teachers had books. What century are we living in?

Cliff notes was AI of the 20th Century

I guess it kind of was. 😜☮️💙

That used to happen a lot in poor inner city schools UNTIL the first secret photos and video tapes of certain classrooms and teachers were sent to major news agencies by students a few decades ago. Lots of kids just got passed through the system as dumb or not worth it OR as star athletes.

It’s very sad.

Sad. But not debilitated. The fight is perpetual. Resist ignorance!

It's so much easier than, you know, learning stuff.

I tried to get sad. But the stores are all out of it.

Anti-intellectuals and science deniers should be barred from using products of science, i.e., no phones, no cars (although a pickup truck doesn't contain that much science), no airplanes, no Tv’s and pretty much anything else with a plug on it.

And above all, no medicines or medical equipment like X-rays, MRI’s.

Sad, no. Scared, yes.

#AntiEducated #AntiSmart #AntiTruth #TheMANYvsTheFEW

Uh, duh

I understand White Christian Conservatives, so it’s more like “expected” ….religious conservatism has ALWAYS throughout history hated intellectualism and science

The willfully ignorant 😮‍💨

that part

Idiocracy (2006) Starting to look more like a documentary and less like Comedy/Sci-fi As of now. I would also like to add that President Camacho looks like a more sane, humble and sane President then the one currently at the White House in real life.

That old pedophile made stupidity popular again.

Those that have don’t know what anti-intellectualism means.

Nietzsche said in the Gay Science to be an intellectual is come at life from a point of Priveledge and freedoms. it is the duty of intellectuals to protect the mechanisms of those freedoms

Carl Sagan tried to warn everyone about the disturbing trend of indoctrinated ignorance in American politics...

Isaac Asimov pointed it out as well.

The way I feel can't be described as merely sad. Primarily, I feel like an alien lost on another planet, separated and far away from anyone or anything even remotely relatable.

You're not an alien from another planet. You're one of the few humans out there in a sea of NPCs. That's all those people are, is NPCs. Their opinion doesn't count; they don't even really have opinions of their own given they reject any valid means of forming their own.

Time to join the resistance and band together with like-minded, or maybe more accurately “minded”, folks.

I'm really digging the Sons of Liberty fam. They're a great group and Big Sarge always warms my heart and gives me strength. U can check them out on this app...good stuff.

Let’s hope The View returns soon

I believe it’s rooted in nihilism tbh. You’re smart. I’m not. We are both gonna die. And no one will remember us. So our tiny human minds don’t matter. And those are the smart people.

horrified...😢...😢

It is sad. I suppose, for many, it's easier than thinking.

There is a movie called "Idiocracy" that speaks to this. We're living in it now.

It’s a 💯 prophecy 👏

Yep

And anti-science. Makes me sad. And angry. It’s also likely to make me sick from lack of medicines or vaccines or safe food or some other things they do away with.

Every single day

Very.

This is why I prefer my wild yard birds, + all animals. Bird brain is a funny insult, cause most of them are smarter than us. Set up a feeder and watch the Dove or another species scatter seeds below while eating. Everyone eats. It’s a successful trickle down effect. Wish we could do even that!

YES.

Yes

Since childhood.

Every damn day. Seems everywhere I turn, there's another example. It's quite discouraging, tbh.

As someone with a PhD who can't get a job doing anything intellectual, why yes, yes I do

The path to idiocracy will soon be a five-lane interstate highway...

As a teacher I saw many who refused to learn or discuss. People with no curiosity! It always saddened me and made me fear for a country where all can vote, informed or just biased.

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." ~ George Carlin

Just by the definition of the IQ tests, half of the population has a score at or below 100, with half of them below 90. No matter what you think of iq scores, I find this stuff pretty grim.

Yeah, the ratio of the intelligence quotient is based on a mean 100, relative to others of the same age. Ethnic biases are obvious when white kids can answer, "Who's Neil Armstrong," but have no clue, "Who's Louie Armstrong?" And, as we all age out of 'learning,' a better quotient is 'cogitating'.

My knowledge is better than your knowledge, haha. /s That's one bias in the IQ testing. A friend with dyslexia tested 75 on the written IQ tests. Later he was given an oral test - IQ banged out at 185. He had to repeat the testing many times before educators agreed that he really was that smart.

Well, this hurts.

help

It’s even worse if you know you’re stupid and still smarter than other people.

Yep, if you can see--and even be suspicious that you are subject to--the Dunning-Kruger phenomenon, but still have a better grasp of reality than over half the population. . . well, depression is an obvious possibility, but our collective future really can't afford that shut down by decent people.

Yes.

Only every day since grade school.

Nope, I get angry. I've written about anti-intellectualism in 'merikkka for decades. People laugh Americans: 25% are illiterate 50% are functionally illiterate Only 20 to 25% have college degrees 18% have masters degrees Only 13% have a PhD It's difficult to even have a real conversation here

Culturally, it's always been a thing in the West

I just read stories about Ivy League 2025 graduates, who worked hard and did brilliant things. Their futures were bright, and then they lost job offers & Fulbrights because of govt cuts. And I felt so sorry for them, while also realizing that too many Americans would applaud their failure.

All the time

Yup! Every day.

Every single day.

The total lack of curiosity is distressing

tapping the sign

Not being ignorant seemed so important growing up in the 70's

Yes. MAGA turned us into a country where being uneducated is celebrated and submitting to tyranny somehow will make America great again.

Nah, this is the Reagan Revolutions apotheosis--several generations of kids educated in public schools the government has been hellbent on destroying.

Human beings can't think w/out language. Syme's task as the new ed. of the Dictionary of Newspeak in 1984 is to eliminate words that have the subtlest differences in meaning so that they're no longer available. The impoverishment of language then necessarily leads to the impoverishment of thinking.

'The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”' Isaac Asimov, 1980.

They have "resigned from the cult of science." I sometimes wish that when they had a serious illness, they would stay "resigned from the cult of science", and help us clear out the gene pool.

Exactly. At least let everyone else benefit from their resignation.

Just look at RFK Jr trying to defund medical research, vaccinations and hygiene out of existence. They are doing it right now.

Every day.

All. the. time.

Freedom of speech versus freedom of thought The right to bear arms versus the freedom to kill The right to vote versus the right to discriminate if you need help voting Immigration Reform versus human trafficking Universal healthcare versus cutting programs deducted in my payroll check

When I’m sad about it, I volunteer at my local literacy council teaching adult learners.

🎯This in a nut shell.

No, I get mad.

Yes. For real,starting therapy for this insanity .

No. I grew up in the South. It is the default of the ignorant.

No more now in 75 than when I was 15.

Somedays, I wonder if people heard the joke word "antidisestablishmentarianism" growing up, it latched, and as adults they thought "I could get into that".

The number of people that could read that word, or pronounce it is far greater than the number of people that have the faintest clue as to what it means. Not a 'joke word' - just lost to history. But - Yeah. "You had me at Anti... "

Such an old word, lost to a time when people fought over... Wait, it might end up applying to our times. Such an unthinkable thought a mere 2 years ago, now a real possibility. Let us not bow to those who wish to create the conditions that would resurrect this word.

Yes…overwhelmingly sad. This will not end well.

Terrified

Some. Some people.

Ignorance is bliss

Seems more like ignorance is frustration and rage.

I believe you may be correct

Every damn day. It's like we're living in a show called The Walking Brain Dead.

All the time.

I'm convinced this comedy will one day be recategorized as a futuristic documentary!!

Yes 😔

No, that sounds like something only a total nerdoid would do. *gives atomic wedgie* *cheats through school* *is elected to high office*

Yes.

Explains why a significant portion of the 77.3 million U.S. *adults* (28% of all U.S. *adults* in 2024) voted for a rapist and insurrectionist.

I try not to think about it..

It is not a movement to “anti-intellectualism”. Rather, there is a chronic lack of education and the lack of intellectual curiosity has been replaced by hating what you do not understand. They have been convinced that their hate is a productive response. They can rewind the world for a “do over”!

Like every fuckin day bro. I think those people will basically never say anything good, and there's little chance they'll ever change. If we're ever gonna win, these people can't remain as they are right now

Ya know, 1/2 the people have an IQ below 100, just for starters.

That's terrifying.

Yes🥲

The well of compassion is bone dry. These people may be left behind chasing storms for entertainment. Digging holes in hillsides to shelter from the extremes. Bye Bye.

The U.S. is a place on earth. There are beautiful places and spaces. Some folks think it’s the greatest. I’m not mortal and don’t wish to suffer fools in the years I have left. If other places offer a better more affordable quality of life, I’ll gladly leave, no strings attached if at all possible.

Every day, all day.

Goes hand in hand with your thread on the golden age of mediocre white guys. I heard the saying a lot growing up in the 80’s “that’s the dumbest smart person I have ever seen”, yeah because they couldn’t do something like change a tire. Well these miss can’t change a tire or be an accountant either.

Sad? How about grieving.

This is pretty much X/twitter. The entire platform is Brandolini's law personified

YES

At least once a day. Often several.

Every day when I listen to people at work talk. The idea that being knowledgeable about anything beyond sports is contemptible is an overwhelming belief for many of my fellow Teamsters…

O’Brien is your guy and he is full white supremacist Trumper anti union. Complete silence from you guys on this:

Trust me, I know. Too many clamor for him cause he did well in the last contract negotiation. He’s up for reelection, I didn’t back him, but enough will that the Townie prick likely stays in.

Yes. Nothing good will come from it. Just hope it doesn't end us.

No-it's been a fact of life in the US for decades. Even moderate Republican Eisenhower ran against the intellectual elitists in the Dem Party. Adlai Stevenson embraced it-when a woman told him he had the vote of every thinking person, he responded "That's not enough, ma'am, I need a majority!"

Deeply depressed

More and more every damn day 😶

Sad? Chronically so. I think it can be classified as full on clinical depression at this point…and I’d like some drugs for it.

On a global scale? Yes. On a national scale? Yes. On an everyday scale, with everyday people and everyday things? Hell yes. It's easier to be loud than it is to be informed.

younguns please never ever give up Reading is Fundamental 👀

Read this line the other day and enjoyed it: "Books'll learn ya"

No.

Every damned day, and it just gets worse over time. So much for the “progress” we were promised from social media and other vapid online traps. The stupid are proliferating and winning (cf. Trump/MAGA).

their parents were anti-intellectuals. their grandparents were anti-intellectuals. their great grandparents were anti-intellectuals. generational stupidity has lived among us for decades.

I mean, it seems like it would be life affirming for the stupid. Have we really checked the water supply lately?

What makes me sad is that in what was a democracy The people decided they don’t want democracy Too hard to understand and make it function for them

Almost exclusively

A few of those people are my own family. They take pride in being a part of something even if that something is absurd.

Daily.

Yes.

Sad and frustrating for me. I grew up at the tail end of that 60s era when intellectualism and culture were embraced in the USA. People bought classical music recordings. Shakespeare was on network TV. So were William Buckley and Art Buchwald. Anti-intellectualism began in the 70s with bad TV.

Angry. I get angry.

I'm not planning to go through the stages of grief. I'm pissed and intend to stay that way until our democracy is restored fully.

They've fully embraced anti-intellectualism, anti-ethics, anti-morals, anti-integrity, anti-consistency (they gladly accept hypocrisy), anti-democracy... the list goes on. Our society has become a dystopian novel & it's going to get worse.

I did. Sadly, now I get angry…

Oh dear gods yes

No, just angry.

Yes- facing brilliant Al Gore in 2000 George W Bush was panicking, so they went with "Who would you rather get drunk with?" & that decided it.

Yes

Yes

Those who are too dumb to know the difference. Answer is yes.

I am from Oklahoma, and yes, I get mad as hell and don't want to take it any more

And how proud they are of it

I am surrounded by mouth-breathing knuckle-dragging dipshits who are walking billboards for the Dunning-Kruegger Effect.🫥😵‍💫😵‍💫

It's easier to feel than to think.

YES!!!

And confused by it. Now with AI it will be x a billion.

For the Christo-Fascist MAGA death cult ignorance is a bliss...

Daily!

Yes, and I don’t see how we ever come back from this.

Time is long. Life has survived worse than this. We just need to keep resisting and fighting for how we want life to be.

Nah, I'm happy there's only 77 million of them and apparently that number goes down every day. 🤣😂🤣😂

Yes.

Sad? Not any more - flummoxed, furious, frustrated. All those things. But not sad.

Yes

The dark side is quicker, easier, more seductive. Most of it's users never came back, never look back. They have been consumed by their hatred of everything that is not them-self. Fearing everything that can bring light. It's a deep fall into madness and desire of power over the mass and the force.

Richard Hofsteadter’s “Anti-intellectualism In American Life”, published in 1963 is eye-opening. Anti-intellectualism has been a central theme pretty much since the beginning of US history. ia802903.us.archive.org/6/items/rich...

Anti-intellectualism? Can we just call it,,,,stupid?

On a technicality- no. Because I assume that it was almost always this sort of ratio. The internet just made it very easy for them to identify themselves.

Fascism is full display gobbling up the dumbest but most vocal .. woke needs to get creative and louder

We are starring in Idiocracy in real life

Not just sad, scared!

Yes! If you had asked me in 2014 what bothered me most about the GOP, I would have said "The Anti-Intellectualism". But it's so much worse.

Yes, it’s sickening

Every goddamn day.

I get angry

That’s good to be angry. It shoes you where your boundaries are, what you care about, and gives you energy to do something about it.

Shows you.

Not their fault for they know not

Yes, I have relatives who won't get vaccines

Very much so. The fact that intelligence is being touted as a bad thing, while stupidity and fake masculinity is being touted as good, are indicators that this society, much less the world, may not survive the coming storm.

During my recent holidays in the US I noticed that national TV channels are so polarized! Fox news seemed worse where every time I watched, they were just loudly laughing with 'the Dems'. But facts don't seem to matter anymore. The 'alternate facts' have become the new normal and 'truth'. Worrying..

When they tell their kids that everything they need to know can be found in 1 book written by savage shepherds that would have been flummoxed by the technology of a wheelbarrow, this is what happens.

One of the saddest parts to me is the people who fall for it isn’t always so black and white, not all of them are on the side of toxic masculinity like that and it makes it so hard to have them acknowledge whats happening

I do certainly bemoan the loss of the search for knowledge and the undervaluing of intelligence. Sadly, there's no one I can discuss the issue with.

Yes.

Yeeeeep…

I wouldn't even mind it so much if it didn't come with being stupid on purpose to "get back" at... intelligence?? I don't even know, man.

Like those who support the EPA revoking the legal (read:scientific) basis for combating climate change? Anti intellectual as in “one deranged Nazi’s opinion is more valid that that of all the worlds’ climate scientists? That kind of anti intellectual? Btw- when do we intellectuals stop it?

Another form of White Flight?

Every. Single. Day.

Yeah. And devastated by the seeming lack of concern by most locally.

It’s in the sleepless nights rotation.

Gives us smart people the edge. 🤭

Dunno

Major source of everyday sadness

I spent all this time getting smart….all to be called a dummy by half the population. Wtf

Wtf is fascism. We’ll need everyone smart to get through this.

i dunno man...bc sometimes it seems the intellectuals use their talents to literally support pedophilia...

See this is the shit he’s talking about

MRS. SHITTO, WHAT'S THIS: www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/... ALL THE BEST, LSE

I used to, but there is a clear consequence to all of that and I have no patience at all to play Superman. The moment you save the dumb from making dumb mistakes, they'll learn nothing.

Sometimes they go fully delusional and their misinformed votes get people who look like me thrown in concentration camps in Florida, though…. I wish leaving them alone had no consequences. Believe me,don’t want to be Superman. I just want to be left alone also. 😆

I would argue this rule applies regardless of a person’s (perceived) intelligence tbh

Chocolate milk does not come from brown cows. You shouldn't have to remind people not the drink bleach or eat laundry pods. Experts are usually more informed than YouTube. I lament the glorification of idiocy every damn day. 😑

Every god damned second of every god damned day. Stupid is as Social Media has brainwashed the sheep into. Here is what one of the last UNVESTED intellectuals at the margins is up too: www.youtube.com/@M.BrianPalm...

Or white supremacy?

White supremacy is a direct result of anti-intellectualism. In fact, it's a goal.

Yes, and they will use pseudo-intellectual ideas to support racism, just as the Third Reich did.

Hitler found education abhorrent. He called it "the most corroding and disintegrating poison."

Yep

The United States is an Anti-intellectual cesspool, but I'm optimistic looking abroad and seeing nations that make education the foundation of their society. China pretty much guarantees college to those who choose that path and the incredible advancements in Japan speaks for themselves.

I do

Every effin day!

As a librarian... yes.

I’m depressed.

Considering being intelligent is always something I was proud of and looked for in others, yeah.

Yeah

Absolutely

What's intellectualism? There y'all go spewing out those big words! 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙😅🤣😂

Nothing funny about this. Sad. It’s sad.

I was making fun of MAGA sorry. It is sad.

Sadly, I laugh so I don't cry.

Yes,all the time. It’s been an issue for a long time but is extreme now.

Daily.

Feels like a badly written disaster movie. Or a ridiculously evil and kooky nightmare.

Yup, but then I realize...they tend to die faster and get taken out by totally avoidable stupid stuff and my mood improves!

Yes.

You are putting it soooo nicely but yeah

you just think it's been increasing in the US always been huge, just they happen to be louder and empowered now just like the fascism that is taking advantage

what's really scary is the intentional long term strategic destruction of reality-based education at all levels, and scientists and other smart people given huge incentives to leave the country Personally I think we're fvcked but then so is the species, worldwide

I always knew that A LOT of people were stupid... I just didn't realize that they were also racists until 2015...

I always knew that a lot of people were racist (regardless of skin color); they don't mind or care that their ignorance is on full display.

A stupid person isn't always racist but a racist is always stupid.

Daily

What makes me sad is that there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it; we can’t fix stupid. Stupid gets temporarily glued when the “duh, oh that hurts” happens to THEM!!!!!

Yes, you can fix stupid. Hate that phrase coined by an ignorant comedian. It's called education, and it's never been good in America even for the wealthy imho.

Ignorant comedian? Your opinion. And I beg to DIFFER you can put a kid in school; it doesn’t mean they always learn. Just like leading a horse to water, or don’t you like THAT saying either?

Yes

Yes but, having grown up as a smart kid among mouth breathers, not terribly surprised.

From a country built on science. Yeah, it makes me very sad and angry. But the modern technological world has left the worthless primitive maga apes in the dust and they’re lashing out.

Not really. When my kids go up against the maga chimps’ kids, mine will do better. I hope maga parents teach their filthy rat kids to hate and fear science and reason. This will allow actual American kids to achieve more. If the primitive magas want their rat kids to wallow in ignorance so be it

Pretty shortsighted, their wallowing will take this country down.

Didn’t get here overnight. My current opinion is a result of decades of me trying to force reason into the smooth brains of the humid states of America… and I am just done. They want their fucking kids raised by the values of ignorant Bronze Age goat herders, so be it.

Unfortunately, they then send them out to vote. . . I am from a humid state (moved at 16 now 79).

Condolences…

BRAINWASHED SINCE BIRTH, IN A PLACE CALLED SUNDAY SCHOOL, THESE VILE REPUBLICANS ARE DESTROYING YOUR COUNTRY! BOYCOTT, STAY OUT OF THE RED STATES AND CON BUSINESS.

Pathetic humid state Bible humpers are America’s very own ignorant russian peasants. Magas are such a sad silly group of morons.

It’s incredibly disappointing. We’ve devolved instead of evolving. It amazes me that people have gotten dumber since the internet was created. Everyone now has the knowledge of the world at their fingertips and people actually managed to get stupider.

once i was bitching about some family members and my mother said "but they aren't happy" & i said, "but they're too stupid to know they're unhappy" i'm not sad, i just wish some people would embrace intellectualism so they could be as miserable as they make other people with their ignorance

I felt this! It's sad to see what the obvious problem is with some people when everyone else around you believes things are normal and justify that kind of misery. Ignorance is bliss, but not for me.

Definitely. That and the level of apathy in general. The bigotry disgusts me as it’s straight up Nazi bs. All stemming from ignorance and fear. The fear is the real kicker. The way it can hack human minds and get people to act against their own interests.

The only thing they're afraid of is being treated as they've treated others.

They’re habitual loser who blame others for their own failures. They’re definitely in the we can dish it out but not take it in kind crowd.

Always been that way, always will be. There's a lot of not so smart people out there, and there's no cure. We just have to kick them back under their rocks.

Every day

It’s always been this way. The difference is that social media forces you to hang out with the idiots. One hundred years ago, you would be invited to dinner parties, and they would be trapped in dive bars.

I interact with them everyday in my small town. It’s like they were exposed to noxious chems as babies and never developed critical thinking.