Anti-Intellectualism in American Culture: The Pride of Ignorance

anti-intellectualism is not only tolerated but celebrated in parts of American society.
Charles P. Pierce: The leaders of Idiot America are those people who abandoned their obligations to the above. There are lots of people making an awful lot of money selling their ideas and their wares to Idiot America. Idiot America is an act of collective will, a product of lassitude and sloth.

Question: What is the difference between stupidity and glorifying ignorance?
Charles P. Pierce: Stupidity is as stupidity does, to quote a uniquely stupid movie. It has been with us always and always will be. But we moved into an era in which stupidity was celebrated if it managed to sell itself well, if it succeeded, if it made people money. That is "glorifying ignorance." We moved into an era in which the reflexive instincts of the Gut were celebrated at the expense of reasoned, informed opinion. To this day, we have a political party—the Republicans—who, because it embraced a "movement of Conservatism" that celebrated anti-intellectualism is now incapable of conducting itself in any other way. That has profound political and cultural consequences, and the truly foul part about it was that so many people engaged in it knowing full well they were peddling poison.
The Culture Wars Are Over and the Idiots Have WonA veteran journalist's acidically funny, righteously angry lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States.In the midst of a career-long quest to separate the smart from the pap, Charles Pierce had a defining moment at the Creation Museum in Kentucky, where he observed a dinosaur. Wearing a saddle.... But worse than this was when the proprietor exclaimed to a cheering crowd, "We are taking the dinosaurs back from the evolutionists!" He knew then and there it was time to try and salvage the Land of the Enlightened, buried somewhere in this new Home of the Uninformed. With his razor-sharp wit and erudite reasoning, Pierce delivers a gut-wrenching, side-splitting lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States, and how a country founded on intellectual curiosity has somehow deteriorated into a nation of simpletons more apt to vote for an American Idol contestant than a presidential candidate. With Idiot America, Pierce's thunderous denunciation is also a secret call to action, as he hopes that somehow, being intelligent will stop being a stigma, and that pinheads will once again be pitied, not celebrated.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• anti
• intellectualism
• insane
• posse
• clowns
• dane
• cook
• atheist
• bill
• hicks
• dinosaurs
• religion
• unscientific
• america
• idiot
• steve
• harvey
• idiocy
• sarah
• palin
• American
• Culture
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• Intellectualism
• republican
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• on
• science
• Idiot
• America
• War

[BreathingTheDark]

Thank you so much.

I love Bill Hicks so much (as well as Carlin, but that's a different story of course), and Dane Cook is completely ridiculous. I wonder if he even knows what he's doing.

I don't even want to talk about ICP.

[JokersRWildStudios]

Proof there is no God. Bill Hicks dies of cancer at 32. Dane Cook still lives...Nooooo God. Period.

[mroldschoolhiphop1]

how is this funny? i dont get it.

i think he never heard of george carlin or bill hicks.

[jordaniangamer]

I do agree that there's an anti-intellectualism in American culture from the general public's circle, but I really have nothing against Dane Cook. He entertains me.

[john42t]

@problemequalszero It has been the case for quite some time. Surely for at least a century, and not only in America. In the 30ties American intellectuals had been very fond of planned economy, and it was "ordinary" people who knew it to be nonesense. I'm an atheist, but that doesn't make me be on the "intellectual" side.

[revron77]

Sorry but on the topic of atheism vs religion I have to say. To dictate that one side holds intellectualism and the other does not is arrogance.

I mean honestly. Are we going to say such thinkers like Michio Kaku are ignorant.

Yes the man should not be making jokes about atheism. But to say he’s making jokes about intellectuals is abit.. silly. Not because atheists are not smart... but the fact of applying labels to groups is.

[danndan6]

its a joke. making jokes isn't ignorance. he's not trying to be factually correct

[Cheezburger2012]

When Dane Cook said "Well, I was raised Catholic!" all I could hear was George Carlin saying "... and now the Catholics, which I was until I reached the age of reason..."

[Marchant2]

That comedian is not even funny. That's because it's hard to be the funny one AND the dumb one laughing at the smart one and funnier one.

[OmarAlQaseer]

I really hope that people grow out of liking Dane Cook by the time they're 16.

[skbiswas]

There is so wrong, this is America I suspect?

[FAITHandLOGIC]

@Kwinnky So everyone is delusional but you. Got it.