# Anti-intellectualism inhibits learning **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 21, 2007, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014 "2007-09-21T18:12:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![coberst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c37758/32.png) [@coberst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coberst)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/1 "2007-09-21T18:12:24Z")
Anti-intellectualism inhibits learning A large percentage (studies suggest over 90%) of the meaning we derive from communication, we derive from the non-verbal cues that the other person gives. How does one communicate with an unseen audience that can be anybody in the world? In face-to-face communication there is so much information about the audience at hand that does not exist on the Internet. Does one use language for the 12 year old, or the 18 year old, or the 25 year old, the educated, the non-educated? How to speak coherently to the 12 year old while not infuriating the 18 year old and how to mold an essay for the 30 year old without losing the 18 year old. People who write books have editors to act as a third party who understands the material and understands the anticipated audience. How do I, who have been studying the matter at hand for months and even years, know what words to provide a parenthetical definition that some may need but others may consider to be condescending? Anti-intellectualism (opposing or hostile to intellectuals or to an intellectual view or approach) is so prevailing in the United States that almost every reader has a strong anti-intellectual bias that they are completely unconscious of. This anti-intellectual bias constantly inhibits their effort to read anything that smacks of being ‘intellectual’. People might pay me money to lecture them on the proper way to swing a golf club but to lecture anyone on matters intellectual is pompous (excessively elevated or ornate—having or exhibiting self-importance). ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/2 "2007-09-21T18:23:08Z")
[QUOTE=coberst] Anti-intellectualism (opposing or hostile to intellectuals or to an intellectual view or approach) is so prevailing in the United States that almost every reader has a strong anti-intellectual bias that they are completely unconscious of. This anti-intellectual bias constantly inhibits their effort to read anything that smacks of being ‘intellectual’. [/QUOTE] :dubious: ‘almost every reader has a strong anti-intellectual bias’?? Do you have a cite for this? My bullshit detector is off the charts atm. Since this is the core of your, um, OP I’d say a little backing up of your assertion is in order before the question can be properly addressed. -XT ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/3 "2007-09-21T18:37:32Z")
I think you may be confusing “anti-intellectualism” with “boring the shit out of your audience with incoherent ramblings”. What is an “intellectual” lecture? You can have a serious, thoughtfull discussion on any topic, but you need to figure out how to connect to their audience. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/4 "2007-09-21T18:45:34Z")
[QUOTE=coberst] People might pay me money to lecture them on the proper way to swing a golf club but to lecture anyone on matters intellectual is pompous (excessively elevated or ornate—having or exhibiting self-importance). [/QUOTE] The state of California pays my wife to lecture on matters intellectual. So far no one has accused her of being pompous. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/5 "2007-09-21T19:07:59Z")
[QUOTE=Pochacco] The state of California pays my wife to lecture on matters intellectual. [/QUOTE] That sentence either gives me an urge to sing the Beatles (Maxwell’s Silver Hammer) or Gilbert & Sullivan (I Am the Very Model…). I can’t decide which. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/6 "2007-09-21T19:18:17Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] That sentence either gives me an urge to sing the Beatles (Maxwell’s Silver Hammer) or Gilbert & Sullivan (I Am the Very Model…). I can’t decide which. [/QUOTE] Go with the Gilbert and Sullivan. It was the first one to pop into my mind. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/7 "2007-09-21T19:40:53Z")
“Anti-intellectualism,” as you put it, is: (A) extremely degraded and ineffectively applied terminology which fails to communicate properly to a variegated audience composed on non-“intellectual” (which paradigmically creates a self-referential definitional statement) members of the genus Homo Sapiens (Sapiens). (B) The subject of a not-very coherent post. What do you mean? That poeple like “brains”? Not usually. They don’t like pompous gits. I get pissed when I see people casually drop words like “hermeneutic.” The word has meaning and is ueful, but it’s also a ten-dollar word, if you know what I mean. It’s too much. Academics have a _very_ bad habit of jazzing up their material with enough buzzwords and weird untranslated french quotes to make the most zombified corporate boss-speaking mission-statement maker green with envy. Hermeneutic (which I don’t believe I ever seen anyone, _anywhere_, _EVER_, use properly, written or spoken) is very popular, but it’s hardly the only crime against good writing; good writers use the least or most efficient jargon they can get away with. And unfortunately, certain branches of academia (unsurprisingly, philosophy and English take the lead here :rolleyes: ) encourage this to no end. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/8 "2007-09-21T20:14:12Z")
Let’s see… _I am the very model of a modern intellectual I spew, spin, and pontificate, but alway ineffectual Unless of course I hit upon a matter that is sexual_ That’s all I can think of right now. Needs a line. ---
**Author:** ![lekatt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lekatt/32/7269_2.png) [@lekatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lekatt)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/9 "2007-09-21T20:31:00Z")
[QUOTE=coberst] Anti-intellectualism inhibits learning A large percentage (studies suggest over 90%) of the meaning we derive from communication, we derive from the non-verbal cues that the other person gives. How does one communicate with an unseen audience that can be anybody in the world? In face-to-face communication there is so much information about the audience at hand that does not exist on the Internet. Does one use language for the 12 year old, or the 18 year old, or the 25 year old, the educated, the non-educated? How to speak coherently to the 12 year old while not infuriating the 18 year old and how to mold an essay for the 30 year old without losing the 18 year old. People who write books have editors to act as a third party who understands the material and understands the anticipated audience. How do I, who have been studying the matter at hand for months and even years, know what words to provide a parenthetical definition that some may need but others may consider to be condescending? Anti-intellectualism (opposing or hostile to intellectuals or to an intellectual view or approach) is so prevailing in the United States that almost every reader has a strong anti-intellectual bias that they are completely unconscious of. This anti-intellectual bias constantly inhibits their effort to read anything that smacks of being ‘intellectual’. People might pay me money to lecture them on the proper way to swing a golf club but to lecture anyone on matters intellectual is pompous (excessively elevated or ornate—having or exhibiting self-importance). [/QUOTE] Once upon a time a noetic minister with several degrees was appointed to a church in middle America. He tried hard to please the member of his parish, but just wasn’t getting through to them. In desperation he asked the parish janitor what was wrong with his sermons. “Can’t understand them,” came the answer. So the next week he asked the janitor to read his sermon to see if he could understand it. “No,” came the reply. So after several editings he got the ok from the janitor. He had simplified the sermon to the extent he was embarrassed to give it, but give it he did. The reaction was spontaneous and almost unanimous. The parish loved it. KIS principle, keep it simple. Also honest and from the heart. You can’t go wrong with writing like that. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/10 "2007-09-21T20:38:28Z")
[QUOTE=sqweels] _I am the very model of a modern intellectual I spew, spin, and pontificate, but alway ineffectual Unless of course I hit upon a matter that is sexual_ [/QUOTE] Or better yet a text whose sex is wholly intertextual! ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/11 "2007-09-21T20:56:15Z")
[QUOTE=lekatt] Once upon a time a noetic minister with several degrees was appointed to a church in middle America. He tried hard to please the member of his parish, but just wasn’t getting through to them. In desperation he asked the parish janitor what was wrong with his sermons. “Can’t understand them,” came the answer. So the next week he asked the janitor to read his sermon to see if he could understand it. “No,” came the reply. So after several editings he got the ok from the janitor. He had simplified the sermon to the extent he was embarrassed to give it, but give it he did. The reaction was spontaneous and almost unanimous. The parish loved it. KIS principle, keep it simple. Also honest and from the heart. You can’t go wrong with writing like that. [/QUOTE] That sounds like a story from Chicken Soup for the Soul…or Paul Harvey. ---
**Author:** ![JohnnieEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@JohnnieEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnieEnigma)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/12 "2007-09-21T21:18:17Z")
[QUOTE=coberst] Anti-intellectualism inhibits learning A large percentage (studies suggest over 90%) of the meaning we derive from communication, we derive from the non-verbal cues that the other person gives. How does one communicate with an unseen audience that can be anybody in the world? In face-to-face communication there is so much information about the audience at hand that does not exist on the Internet. Does one use language for the 12 year old, or the 18 year old, or the 25 year old, the educated, the non-educated? How to speak coherently to the 12 year old while not infuriating the 18 year old and how to mold an essay for the 30 year old without losing the 18 year old. People who write books have editors to act as a third party who understands the material and understands the anticipated audience. How do I, who have been studying the matter at hand for months and even years, know what words to provide a parenthetical definition that some may need but others may consider to be condescending? Anti-intellectualism (opposing or hostile to intellectuals or to an intellectual view or approach) is so prevailing in the United States that almost every reader has a strong anti-intellectual bias that they are completely unconscious of. This anti-intellectual bias constantly inhibits their effort to read anything that smacks of being ‘intellectual’. People might pay me money to lecture them on the proper way to swing a golf club but to lecture anyone on matters intellectual is pompous (excessively elevated or ornate—having or exhibiting self-importance). [/QUOTE] I would think the most intelligent, unassuming way to communicate would be to use simplicity. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/13 "2007-09-21T21:20:25Z")
…And the name of that minister was…John Stewart. And now you know…the rest of the story. ---
**Author:** ![coberst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c37758/32.png) [@coberst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coberst)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/14 "2007-09-21T21:25:08Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] :dubious: ‘almost every reader has a strong anti-intellectual bias’?? Do you have a cite for this? My bullshit detector is off the charts atm. Since this is the core of your, um, OP I’d say a little backing up of your assertion is in order before the question can be properly addressed. -XT [/QUOTE] I have only my experience to back my claim. ---
**Author:** ![coberst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c37758/32.png) [@coberst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coberst)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/15 "2007-09-21T21:27:20Z")
[QUOTE=sqweels] Let’s see… _I am the very model of a modern intellectual I spew, spin, and pontificate, but alway ineffectual Unless of course I hit upon a matter that is sexual_ That’s all I can think of right now. Needs a line. [/QUOTE] Is this an example of anti-intellectualism. I think so. ---
**Author:** ![coberst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c37758/32.png) [@coberst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coberst)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/16 "2007-09-21T21:29:40Z")
[QUOTE=lekatt] Once upon a time a noetic minister with several degrees was appointed to a church in middle America. He tried hard to please the member of his parish, but just wasn’t getting through to them. In desperation he asked the parish janitor what was wrong with his sermons. “Can’t understand them,” came the answer. So the next week he asked the janitor to read his sermon to see if he could understand it. “No,” came the reply. So after several editings he got the ok from the janitor. He had simplified the sermon to the extent he was embarrassed to give it, but give it he did. The reaction was spontaneous and almost unanimous. The parish loved it. KIS principle, keep it simple. Also honest and from the heart. You can’t go wrong with writing like that. [/QUOTE] Is this an example of anti-intellectualism, I think so. ---
**Author:** ![coberst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c37758/32.png) [@coberst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coberst)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/17 "2007-09-21T21:31:44Z")
[QUOTE=JohnnyEnigma] I would think the most intelligent, unassuming way to communicate would be to use simplicity. [/QUOTE] If the matter is simple I agree. But not all matters are simple no matter how much we might not like to think about serious matters. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/18 "2007-09-21T21:31:51Z")
[QUOTE=coberst] Is this an example of anti-intellectualism. I think so. [/QUOTE] Seems to me an intellectual would put a question mark at the end of that first sentence. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/19 "2007-09-21T21:33:43Z")
[QUOTE=coberst] I have only my experience to back my claim. [/QUOTE] Then you should state that in your OP. When you make sweeping claims that are based on anecdotal information you should be aware of the fundamental flaw there…that of your own bias driving your findings. For example, nearly everyone I know, both in RL and cyberspace voted for John Kerry in the last election. This might lead me to conclude that in fact John Kerry won the presidential election. This would be an incorrect conclusion. -XT ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014/20 "2007-09-21T21:37:12Z")
[QUOTE=coberst] Is this an example of anti-intellectualism, I think so. [/QUOTE] Is this an example of anti-intellectualism? I think so. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-intellectualism-inhibits-learning/420014.md?page=2)