# Is George W. Bush anti-intellectual? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 4, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-george-w-bush-anti-intellectual/315591 "2005-08-04T17:33:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-george-w-bush-anti-intellectual/315591/101 "2005-08-06T00:39:10Z")
Far too much of expositin, too little of suggestion. But look! Construct a sentence using: Lockstep, songsheet and Ms Rice. Feel free to interpolate lyrics from the Register of Angry Beatles Songs. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-george-w-bush-anti-intellectual/315591/102 "2005-08-06T14:52:55Z")
> [@Renob](#): > > And then there is Teresa – sorry, but any guy that marries a crazy, drunk European such as her is suspect in the eyes of many. I’ve heard Teresa Heinz Kerry called a lot of cruel names, but you are the first I’ve ever seen refer to her as a drunk. I’m sure you have evidence to support this allegation, right? Or are you just displaying the anti-intellectualism you seem so proud of? ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-george-w-bush-anti-intellectual/315591/103 "2005-08-06T15:02:24Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > I think “phony” is a much better descriptor of Bush than “anti-intellectual”. I agree with this statement 100%. (Insert any picture here of Bush clearing brush from his pretend ranch.) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-george-w-bush-anti-intellectual/315591/104 "2005-08-06T15:13:08Z")
Or proposing something significant as though he thought of it. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-george-w-bush-anti-intellectual/315591/105 "2005-08-08T08:18:07Z")
> [@](#): > > **Renob** : And the average person really hates the “intellectuals” who look down on them and disdain them for shopping at Wal-Mart, eating McDonald’s, and driving a pickup truck. Who said that intellectuals don’t shop at Wal-Mart, eat at McDonalds or drive pickup trucks? > [@](#): > > **Renob** : …His (Kerry’s) complete lack of knowlege about hunting, even though he tries to pose as a hunter. The fact that he wind-surfs and snowboards. The fact that he owns a home in Sun Valley… You are looking down on Kerry for assuming that he doesn’t know about one sport and for knowing about others? Is Sun Valley X-rated? > [@](#): > > …but the snobs are the type most folks are thinking about when they talk of intellectuals and why they dislike them. Most folks think of snobs? I think of tweedy old college professors. Both are generalizations and no one knows what most people think. > [@](#): > > You’ll find quite a few intellectual snobs among the liberal talking heads, who go around saying that Bush is stupid and that the people who support him are stupid. I don’t know if they are _snobs_ or not…Most of the talking heads come across as a little arrogant. It’s in the job description. 😃 Welcome to SDMB! > [@](#): > > **Rashak Mani** : Nobody likes a smart-ass-know-it-all… even if they are better qualified. Having a lot of acquaintances that are real braniacs I know how demeaning it feels to be in the presence of people who are way way smarter than ourselves. Most americans aren’t exactly loaded with philosophical or intelectual discussions… so intellectuals won’t have a good political image anywhere… including the US. I _thrive_ when I am around people who know more than I do. Most of the brightest don’t seem to me to be arrogant or dismissive. Americans have their share of philosophical and intellectual discussions. You have to be where they are. As much as I like Molly Ivins and dislike George Bush, Molly did not make her point. What she described was probably the usual Southerner reaction to jibes at Southern ways: We tend to dig in our heels (in this case, literally), and become even more set in our Southern ways. The shoes that George Bush chooses to wear and the dialect that he speaks have nothing to do with his intelligence, or lack thereof. I’ve read nothing that he has said that is anti-intellectual _so far_. I don’t confuse his lack of great intelligence with being anti-intellectual. Intellectuals don’t _look_ or even _talk_ in certain ways. In what way does Condi Rice not fit the standard? ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-george-w-bush-anti-intellectual/315591/106 "2005-08-08T15:57:32Z")
> [@Loopydude](#): > > Well…Bush couldn’t affect pedantry if he tried, so I’ll give him that; but he’s one Hell of a dilettante in my book, being born on third with the attitude of a guy who hit a triple; and a disdain for book-learned academics for their sheer learnedness seems like a kind of redneck elitism, a bizarre form of snobbery glorifying a practice of one-downsmanship, encouraging a race to the intellectual bottom for the purpose of demonstrating “genuinness”. > > Am I too far off, here? Sounds about right to me! Well said, in other words. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-george-w-bush-anti-intellectual/315591/107 "2005-08-08T16:10:13Z")
> [@Loopydude](#): > > a disdain for book-learned academics for their sheer learnedness seems like a kind of redneck elitism Can you supply a quotation from President Bush where he expresses disdain for book-learned academics? ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-george-w-bush-anti-intellectual/315591/108 "2005-08-08T16:16:15Z")
> [@Renob](#): > > His complete lack of knowlege about hunting, even though he tries to pose as a hunter. CITE? Actually, if you did some real research, you’d find that Kerry has been hunting for a very long time–here’s [an old thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=282749) where we debated this point into the ground-- and in fact is no new-comer to sport hunting, unlike: > [@](#): > > The fact that he wind-surfs and snowboards. What is wrong with this, exactly? > [@](#): > > The fact that he owns a home in Sun Valley. Which is somehow inferior to owning a dude ranch in Crawford, TX? > [@](#): > > And then there is Teresa – sorry, but any guy that marries a crazy, drunk European such as her is suspect in the eyes of many. Drunk? Where the hell did you get that? > [@](#): > > Keep in mind that this is all subjective Nonsense, you just made several assertions which need to be supported with actual facts: Kerry knows nothing about hunting, Teresa is a drunk… > [@](#): > > but if you go to many parts of the country you’ll hear such things said about Kerry. People can’t connect with him. If people used falsehoods to not connect with Kerry… > [@](#): > > You can be intellectual and still be a man of the people. Bill Clinton was. This whole “man of people” fantasy is a chimera at best. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-george-w-bush-anti-intellectual/315591.md?page=5)