Anti-Intellectualism 2018

It seems that nowadays, people are willing to belive any form of accusation, or theory with minimal to zero tangible evidence.

Bandwagon fallacy and proof through intimidation are the norm in thinking something is true because it's popular and shouting down the opposing argument, instead of actually using proof and logic.

Fact is no longer credible.

Opinion is the new fact.

All generations are guilty of this. All political affiliations are guilty of this. All races and genders and beliefs and sexualities and subcultures are guilty of this and yet, all we want to do is blame each other instead of trying to find real solutions.

Many would want to refute the aforementioned claim, stating that this or that party/group are more “tolerant” but exactly how true is this? Dogmatic prejudice and twisted words in religions. Patriotism for one’s hometown or even sports team often erupting in violence because of trivial rivalry. Rampant racism and prejudice even within all-inclusive rainbow of the LGBT community. Election cycles are less about following good ideas and rather go about fighting against the other party because they are the "enemy."

The conspiracy is in front our faces and it's a monster of our own collective making.

The only way to overcome these problems is to change ourselves.

ALL of us.

But as long as people refuse to see the world beyond thier bubbles of reality, we are doomed to continue down this path of ignorance fed by this strange combination of sanctimony, obstinance, and asininity.

Some have whispered in hushed voices that we are headed for a civil war, but I believe that war is already on our doorstep, already sparked on several fronts; Many people and parties attack others and when they face retaliation, they slink back and tell the world they are being “attacked.” We all push to end bullying, but the first chance we get, we all mock and criticize anyone that speaks their unpopular opinion, attacking their minds, their appearance, their affiliation. We all shout down to discredit sources simply because it doesn’t agree with our personal bias—“fake news” is the popular cry.

We are obsessed with drama, our attention always siphoned away from the one that presents simple logic and drawn to whomever makes the most noise and generates the most controversy.

We have four generations politically and culturally in charge today, all playing victim and accusing each other of "ruining the country" or of sheer ignorance or idiocy, when in fact, all parties have at least one hand in the grand scheme of this massive failure.

We are in an age of ideological intolerance that has been slowly growing over the last 70 years and is now in full bloom, growing in intensity as each subsequent generation inadvertently sows the seeds of anti-intellectualism in their children, gaining momentum with each turn of the life cycle.

The very mentality itself was cited by Adlai Stevenson in 1954, “Thinking implies disagreement; and disagreement implies nonconformity; nonconformity implies heresy; and heresy implies disloyalty —so obviously thinking must be stopped.”

Eduction, entertainment, philosophy, art, belief, commerce, lifestyle, literature, and science today are all contested as biased, many deemed impractical and all have become so intwined on the political that they have in some ways lost some credibility, but not yet all, since they all still hold a level of truth within, truth that is often twisted by both sides of the argument into weapons of mistruth.

Lies are mistruths. Hyperbole is mistruth. Half-truth is mistruth. Withholding information is mistruth. Nitpicking parts of the truth and not using the whole is mistruth.

Using mistruth to support an ideology makes for not but a poor structure to try and build that part of society upon. The tenants of that castle of cards continue building on that foundation of broken agenda, the nails of bias riddling the structure. The opaque walls prevent anyone from seeing the world beyond, as the kings and queens leer down to make sure no one thinks of the true reality outside leaving us all as fool cards and mindless numbers within.