The idea of an “intellectual” has been identified in the present-day as someone who perceives themselves as intelligent, through being well-educated in the school system and having a strong interest in learning. They may love to read books or analyze topics they are pursuing at the moment. However, as passionate as they are about knowledge, they are also passionate about their perceived superiority to others. These “intellects” are high-maintainance and no-nonsense, believing in all work and no play. They utilize what they call intelligence to shame others and restrict them from having fun. Altogether these traits form the modern-day intellectual, creating a cliché that’s consistently looked down upon and shamed.
Of course, there have been criticisms on the fact that pursuing what is considered brilliant interests doesn’t necessarily make the person themself brilliant. This is led by the elitism of these viewpoints, through using education to justify that they are worthier than those who were not brought up in the system. But this has only led to fewer people wanting to pursue thoughtful interests and discussions, since there’s shaming in those who want to contribute in their thoughts. In the current decade, anti-intellectualism has been on the rise, with beliefs that thoughtfulness is pretentious and someone can only fake their interests, the continuous rhetoric of the rejection of critical thinking, and the overall decline in the job rate for arts and humanities, due to the pursuit of more logical and formulaic fields, such as math and science.
Genuine interest in knowledge is often deemed performative, as that individuals who want to learn more about certain fields of study aren’t doing it out of sincerity. Rather, they are doing it for the attention of those around them. In other words, having interests that go against mainstream talents or are considered too difficult or more complex than others is often misrepresented currently. To those who are not taking a liking for these topics, they don’t take others seriously for pursuing them. One example of this is the “Performative Male/Female” joke, which portrays a person who is more interested in reading complex topics such as feminist literature, is highly captivated by music from all kinds of artists, or even drinking matcha. Of course, this all stems out from humor, such as the contests in colleges playing into the joke. Yet,these jokes also push away the actual appeal of intelligence, with people now more often being made fun of for pushing further into their knowledge. Now, it’s less about the substance of what people are thinking about, and more about the idea itself being humorous enough to not be given a chance. Understanding this, the idea of performativeness only adds fuel to people rejecting contemplative thinking to further anti-intellectual beliefs, by not taking critical lenses seriously.
Recently, people have been rejecting the practice of critical thinking, interpreting everything only at face value. Critical thinking has been taught in schools, so students can function in the real world and can be able to interpret what the audience is given, but these days, it has been pushed a lot less. One phrase that is most commonly used against discussions of certain topics is “It’s not that deep”, pulling apart every meaning made in the media to what is shown in front of us. Often used in online discussions, this phrase was meant to convince people that the discusser is thinking too “hard”, hinting to other users not to examine deeply on what is the current state of the world. However,there is a time and place for people to convince people that some things are just meant to think literally, the overabundance of this term has only caused more controversy in discussions, because audiences no longer understand why deeper conversations are necessary. And now, audiences are left to believe in what is going on when it is spelled out literally, since they have now limited their critical thinking skills so that they won’t look into certain topics they have not spread a single thought about. Undeniably, the rejection of critical thinking has only pushed people to understand ideas when they break down simply which applies to anti-intellectualism through pulling away from deep analysis of the media.
Additionally, the current push for STEM-based fields has only paved the way for anti-intellectualism, through preconceived notions on the ineffectiveness of the critical fields. Jobs in the STEM field have been pushed out more to the public in recent years, especially as technology is consistently expanding, while the arts and humanities have only gotten lesser importance. Moreover, the U.S. Bureau Labor of Statistics(2021) predicted that employment prospects from 2019-2029 show that occupations in the STEM field are expected to grow by 8%, while other fields are expected to grow by 3.7%. The issue is not that the STEM fields are not valuable in society, but because these areas of study are promoted more often, there are not a lot of people considering the importance of having critical thinking skills. Commonly, people have found that practical fields such as engineering and science will provide a steady lifestyle, and that majors such as communications or political science guarantees a worse situation, since a lot of the time STEM jobs have a higher lookout. However, this doesn’t mean people can’t thrive in unconventional fields, as the importance of self-expression is something to consider. All of these factors have only caused more people to devalue literacy skills in exchange for a steady lifestyle, pushing anti-intellectualism even further. With fewer people wanting to further their critical thinking skills and to actively teach it, people will become more formulaic in everything they do, by not looking into situations deeply and solving problems well. Of course, the push for STEM fields continues anti-intellectualism indirectly, in which the push undermines the importance of the arts and humanities in modern day society.
Overall, anti-intellectualism has been spreading further in our society, with less focus on the greater impact of critical thinking by the endless ridicule of the skill, to the point that individuals are not willing to form their own thought-based reasoning. Because of this, it’s important to pay attention to what is in front of us, so we can stop ourselves from continuing to be ignorant. The world currently needs all our support, and we can do that if we can make spaces for discussion.
