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David Poe's avatar

The intellectuals at a university seem to think that they are immune to propaganda since they are the smartest people in the world.

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The Real Mary Rose's avatar

As it turns out, they are more susceptible than just about anyone else.

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Alzaebo's avatar

James put it perfectly: because they believe the credentialed other "experts".

T'is the credentialing that's the problem. If confers a counterfeit stamp of legitimacy, and thus, status: You're in, or you're out.

Status, not expertise, is the goal. Patronage is the reward of loyalists.

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The Real Mary Rose's avatar

It is pretty brilliant that they figured out that to get the "intellectual" professional class on board, all they had to do was make sure whoever spouted the lies sounded like a professor or touted impressive credentials.

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Alzaebo's avatar

"He sounds like us. He speaks our language and wears our colors."

I call 'speaking Uni' a dialect. Talking to them outside of that dialect is like speaking French to a dog.

(I don't speak Uni, myself. Never learned the language. Thus, I have no authority, only the opinions of the uneducated, the grunting of hogs.)

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Dorthe's avatar

Exactly. In an interview with Hede Massing - a communist recruiter in the USA - she

declares how almost impossible it was to get working class people into/working for the party but the more easy to get 'the intellectuals and the middle class' because of lofty ideas.

See 46-48 minute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZuHcPnni14&ab_channel=20thCenturyTimeMachine

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Ward Dorrity's avatar

So "smart," they're stupid. They've educated themselves into a sneering idiocy.

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Bruno's avatar

Disproportionate self importance is part of the problem

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Alzaebo's avatar

It's not a matter of IQ (capacity), to say it's of ego (status) is closer to the mark.

Do they recognize or respect my status markers, or not? For instance, I wouldn't know whether a NASCAR mechanic is talking out his ass, so I don't know where he ranks on his tribe's totem pole. "Don't you know who I am?", they demand.

It's the sounds they make. Our hoots and calls determine if we're from the right tree.

Am I surrounded by friendly monkeys, or stranger monkeys? Because everybody knows those monkeys from that tree over there are crazy, stupid, and dangerous.

(The problem is, those monkeys believe the same thing about me. I don't make the right sounds.)

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2001_Odd's avatar

Lie to a liar, steal from a thief, dupe a self-proclaimed "smart" person. . .

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Sedgwick C. Hartung's avatar

"An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher.

The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy.

Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."

~ John Gardner

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elysianfield's avatar

"An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher."

Sedgewick,

Incompetent Philosopher? How could you tell?

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Lugh's avatar

Exactly. The world divides here. Some of us can see which ideas hold water and some of us can't.

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Sedgwick C. Hartung's avatar

"Incompetent Philosopher? How could you tell?"

Good question. Might "incompetent philosopher" be redundant?

Dr. Thomas Sowell addressed this best when he said:

"It is so easy to be wrong-and to persist in being wrong-when the costs of being wrong are paid by others."

ThatтАЩs a really good question. I think your question concerns LATENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, and, ultimately, self-honesty, and the desire for contentment.

When a diesel truck mechanic fails to do a competent job, he (REAL diesel truck mechanics are ALL men) risks 80,000 pounds of fully-loaded tractor-trailer rig going 55 mph running out of control on a heavily-trafficked interstate. Should something go wrong, there are records of who last worked on the truck and who signed-off on their work. In other words, LOW LATENCY and HIGH ACCOUNTABILITY.

When concert pianists, diesel truck mechanics, jet fighter pilots, etc., make a mistake, feedback has low latency and high accountability. Either they improve quickly or they are forced to do something else, or they die, possibly taking others with them.

With philosophers, it takes years, decades, even generations for people to find flaws in their thinking.

--> Because of this, I suspect that "the life of the mind" might attract those who fear accountability, who actively yet subconsciously desire to rush past Truth with averted eyes straight to the wine and cheese, avoiding self-honesty and depriving themselves of the opportunity to achieve contentment.

Which might explain why many ancient philosophers (whose ideas have been VERIFIED by subsequent generations) tend to emphasize action.

Thanks for your question. It made me get off my ass, if only briefly.

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kam's avatar

Removing Tenure would reduce Idiocy.

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Sedgwick C. Hartung's avatar

Removing academia would do even more. Loving those "higher" ed. "vaccine" mandates :9

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IAN2364's avatar

And when you question their claim, they substantiate it with an opinion, and if they need to buttress that claim, they merely add additional opinions to their circular irrefutable equation.

At some point in their life, did they fall off the bus?

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The Real Mary Rose's avatar

I know this from experience within my own family. They believe their opinions are facts! They honestly do.

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Miss Rodeo's avatar

Why would anyone send their kids to college now? We sent one to little-old Texas Tech and he came home a raving lunatic. Even west Texas is no haven of common sense.

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