Are you a liberal educated elitist?

[heir-to-the-wind]

I myself have looked at Trump supporters contemptuously as trailer park riff raff, uneducated hooligans, some of whom might be sexy enough to fuck, but none I would associate with. But then I wonder whether at least some of my anti-Trump sentiment can be attributed to snob appeal in addition to a fear of fascism that Trump represents. I looked at the UNLV cheer leaders this morning and thought to myself ‘’the bimbo squad’’ – something Trump might say. As gay men, we tend to be better educated and to have more discretionary income than the white male voters who ardently support Trump who speaks their sixth-grade level language. They are the people I represented for social security benefits or workers’ compensation. I guess I realized that I am really not against a dictatorship of the liberal educated elite that Hillary Clinton might represent.

 

[rareboy]

Absolutely.

It is why Trump is such a grievous insult.

 

[peeonme]

No, I live in a trailer park and only completed the 9th grade, thankfully I left before they could dumb me down as they do most students.
The one ingredient that I have oft time found missing in the cognitive skill set of many people that I have dealt with over the years is objective thinking. Most people judge all things subjectively, in reference to what they have been told by others, such as teachers.

So, they get that wonderful diploma or maybe even a degree and never look past it. They possess no intellectual curiosity, they never question authority and they march in lock step to the cadence called and the mantra of the day.

I make up my own mind, that seems to piss people off, I don't go with the flow and parrot the words of the elite.

 

[gsdx]

I have a feeling that many of his supporters were avid fans of The Apprentice and stopped watching when he was fired. It would have been fun to have been the person who said, "Donald, you're fired!"

 

[heir-to-the-wind]

Absolutely.

It is why Trump is such a grievous insult.

Indeed, they guzzle beer, we sip Tuscan wine.

As a lawyer, I eagerly and zealously represented ''the working class,'' but I never truly regarded them as my equal educationally. I worked my way through law school despite having cerebral palsy. I should be the poster boy for conservative Republicans -- anti-welfare, rugged individualism, etc. But some abled-bodied people just can't do it on their own. I believe in socialism and in a government run by an educated elite to look out for those less fortunate or less able to manage their own welfare -- like the ignorant yahoos who support a selfish scumbag like Trump. America's founding fathers had the same attitude. They could have been the New World's counterpart to Europe's enlightened despots.

 

[rareboy]

I grew up in a working class family of farmers and carpenters.........there were few people as respectful of education and liberal social values as my family. My Dad had only a grade 8 education and my grandfathers had even less, but they understood liberal values.

It is this new anti-intellectualism that is disturbing...the absolute celebration of ignorance over knowledge...the suppression of fact to religious dogma and the coarsening of public discourse and social norms.

Oh. I also still love a cold beer.

 

[Cormac135]

Even the Waltons knew better than this.

 

[Telstra]

well,
the government have to look after the poor and the not well off.
If you don't, they WILL come and bite you in a big way like the cultural revolution in China.
ALL the educated ones were sent to the "re" education camp or be killed because "the smart ones used to abuse us".

 

[heir-to-the-wind]

I grew up in a working class family of farmers and carpenters.........there were few people as respectful of education and liberal social values as my family. My Dad had only a grade 8 education and my grandfathers had even less, but they understood liberal values.

It is this new anti-intellectualism that is disturbing...the absolute celebration of ignorance over knowledge...the suppression of fact to religious dogma and the coarsening of public discourse and social norms.

Oh. I also still love a cold beer.

Fascist anti-intellectualism is not new. The Nazis burned books. Bible-thumpers suppress facts to religious dogma, exemplified by the Scopes ''monkey trial.''

 

[heir-to-the-wind]

Even the Waltons knew better than this.

There was an episode of book burning in The Waltons. John Boy pulls a bible from the fire.

 

[peeonme]

Fascist anti-intellectualism is not new. The Nazis burned books. Bible-thumpers suppress facts to religious dogma, exemplified by the Scopes ''monkey trial.''

And teachers demand that you regurgitate what they force down your throat rather than to think for yourself.

 

[Cormac135]

There was an episode of book burning in The Waltons. John Boy pulls a bible from the fire.

Indeed, wasn't John Boy just swoonsome, even despite that mole.

 

[rareboy]

And teachers demand that you regurgitate what they force down your throat rather than to think for yourself.

Not true.

Once you get to senior high and definitely into post secondary......the entire thrust is to push students to think for themselves, but to be able to support their arguments with substance. The whole idea behind learning is to make new knowledge by either exploring fields in more detail or combining two apparently disparate fields of knowledge.

 

[Alnitak]

I do know a few circles of urbane snobs but no I am not part of one.

 

[heir-to-the-wind]

Not true.

Once you get to senior high and definitely into post secondary......the entire thrust is to push students to think for themselves, but to be able to support their arguments with substance. The whole idea behind learning is to make new knowledge by either exploring fields in more detail or combining two apparently disparate fields of knowledge.

Of course, that should be the aim of education, but I don't see it in American colleges too often. There are too many bullshit majors. Kids go to college to party; education is incidental; and critical thinking is almost non-existent. UNLV has no classical language courses which used to be the foundation of a liberal arts degree. Cicero -- whoooo????

 

[LittleDove]

If one were to select certain statements from this thread about "trailer dwellers" and juxtapose them with certain statements from Ben that civilisation is entirely the production of the white race, what notable difference could be seen?

 

[eastofeden]

I am not elitist at all...but I am well educated. I have a few friends who are elitist and we have alot of oil and water moments....

 

[Telstra]

I am not elitist at all...but I am well educated. I have a few friends who are elitist and we have alot of oil and water moments....

When the country is in trouble/kaos,
it does not matter if you are elitist or well educated, the mop will judge all of them are the same.

 

[slavicool]

I am liberally educated, but not an elitist. I find all those assaults on Trump supporters pathetic and short-sighted. It's all a smoke screen basically. I personally find some of the Hillary supporters (the most staunch and arrogant ones) more deplorable than the Trump folk.

 

[NotHardUp1]

A lot of what I see on the right that resembles anti-intellectualism is something else. In some cases, it's merely religious conservatism that is fighting against the left as it is ensconced in universities.

The other thing I see is pushback against dishonesty and sacrosanct arguments on the left in social welfare issues. Arguments are made all the time that are exaggerated in order to magnify the argument for a certain policy. Billboards are published that claim 1 in 6 children are "at risk of food insecurity." Well, the factoid may be true, but it is doublespeak. "Food insecurity" isn't hunger, but the risk of it. A term was evolved to blur the line. I came from a poor family and we would have been in that statistic, but we never went hungry. Between family, church, community, and the government, we always had food.

Similarly, I saw a TV interview Sunday morning where Soledad O'Brien did a feature story on low high school graduation rates. In the feature, she interviewed the principal of Fenger H. S. in Chicago. Right off the bat, the principal threw out a statistic of 60% of their students were "considered homeless." What the hell? Does ANYONE believe there is a high school anywhere outside a refugee camp that has 60% homeless students? No. And O'Brien didn't so much as ask a follow up question about it.

Is the problem in the interview a critical issue that needs our help? Surely. But is it OK to make stupid exaggerations for dramatic effect? No. Plus the point of this sort of allegation is usually to deflect attention from the real problems. Homelessness is a problem for the kids who are actually living in it, but there are also other social factors that are denied or suppressed with the rationalization that the dropout kids are all victims instead of partly masters of their own destinies when they and their families make bad choices.

The interview is here: