How do you feel about how anti-intellectual the Western world is?

[Ambivalent1]

It's embarrassing. The average person is a fool who can't even speak well.

 

[UsagiDrop]

Is the western world anti-intellectual? To say that the average person is "a fool who can't even speak well" sounds a little unfair considering that a good portion of countries in the western hemisphere are not even English speaking. And if they are, excluding Canada and The US, they speak a localized creole, pidgin, patois, etc. where speaking "well" is relative to the region. Just because it's not standardized English doesn't make the people speaking it unintelligent. Judging someone by that metric will tell me next to nothing about their intellect. Even some people on this forum are highly intelligent but they are not the best communicators. The way they type sentences in a box doesn't make them a fool.

Anyway, I don't feel strongly about it in one way or the other. I don't really consider people anti-intellectual so much as the school systems and their environments might have failed them for a number of reasons (and most of them have to do with poverty). Where I'm from, the average grade of a student at any level is below what we consider to be a C (a pass ~60% or 50%). I don't really find it embarrassing, it's more of a shame. A lot of people are quite literally set up for failure and aren't even given the chance to be an intellectual. But that failure is good in societies that value keeping people in a system that will benefit those on top. God forbid that the average person can think and engage with the things they happen upon critically, how would they be controlled? Better to tear them down and teach them about the mitochondria instead lol.

 

[Ambivalent1]

Is the western world anti-intellectual? To say that the average person is "a fool who can't even speak well" sounds a little unfair considering that a good portion of countries in the western hemisphere are not even English speaking. And if they are, excluding Canada and The US, they speak a localized creole, pidgin, patois, etc. where speaking "well" is relative to the region. Just because it's not standardized English doesn't make the people speaking it unintelligent. Judging someone by that metric will tell me next to nothing about their intellect. Even some people on this forum are highly intelligent but they are not the best communicators. The way they type sentences in a box doesn't make them a fool.

Anyway, I don't feel strongly about it in one way or the other. I don't really consider people anti-intellectual so much as the school systems and their environments might have failed them for a number of reasons (and most of them have to do with poverty). Where I'm from, the average grade of a student at any level is below what we consider to be a C (a pass ~60% or 50%). I don't really find it embarrassing, it's more of a shame. A lot of people are quite literally set up for failure and aren't even given the chance to be an intellectual. But that failure is good in societies that value keeping people in a system that will benefit those on top. God forbid that the average person can think and engage with the things they happen upon critically, how would they be controlled? Better to tear them down and teach them about the mitochondria instead lol.

The Western world is not the Western hemisphere. The west is Europe and the U.S.

 

[UsagiDrop]

The west is Europe and the U.S.

Now that I know this I am definitely going to tell people to start excluding themselves from conversations about the west, lol. But even in by that I still wouldn't consider the entirety of the west to be anti-intellectual, probably just some of the most influential countries are. I would consider anti-intellectualism to be a rejection of and negative attitude to education and the arts by a society at large and a lot of countries wouldn't necessarily fit that bill as far as I know.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Do you mean people are purposely avoiding education- being against intellectuals? Or- do you mean people are generally becoming more stupid?

I don't know if that's entirely true even... Maybe it is... I'm not clever enough to know! I think- in terms of exams- the papers my parents sat were far more difficult than my generation. Plus, if you consider that the lead originially in petrol damaged the brain development of people of the time- I dread to think what all the pollutants in our environment are doing to us.

How do I feel about it though? Honestly? I don't really care. I'm just trying to make my own way in the world. I don't have children- I don't need to worry about future generations. What they get up to is up to them. I can't wait to be shot of this world.

 

[Vizzy]

It's embarrassing. The average person is a fool who can't even speak well.

How many average person did you meet and speak to conclude this statement, what's your research on this

Where are the sources to prove this statement

You just make up weird topic and questions, I don't know why, are you trying to be relevant!

 

[Ambivalent1]

How many average person did you meet and speak to conclude this statement, what's your research on this

Where are the sources to prove this statement

You just make up weird topic and questions, I don't know why, are you trying to be relevant!

We all want to be relevant. It's why you responded here after all. Don't be a hypocrite.

I've known many people in my life and the amount of stupidity encountered is astronomical. People speak in slang almost all the time even full grown adults. The U.S. is a ghetto shit hole.

 

[Vizzy]

We all want to be relevant. It's why you responded here after all. Don't be a hypocrite.

I've known many people in my life and the amount of stupidity encountered is astronomical. People speak in slang almost all the time even full grown adults. The U.S. is a ghetto shit hole.

Not everyone want to be relevant, I respond to you because the things you ask and say in this site are atrocious

People in your life doesn't make up for the billions of people living in western countries, I think you attract stupid people more than intellectual ones

I don't like this too "People speak in slang almost all the time even full grown adults" but this doesn't make them stupid, they are busy or lazy

If USA is a ghetto then every country in this world is a ghetto Lol

 

[Ashu]

Travel a bit. There's nothing Western about it. It's the human condition.

 

[Ambivalent1]

Travel a bit. There's nothing Western about it. It's the human condition.

That's disappointing.