Several aspects in American culture contribute to this: - prioritization of the ability to make a buck over all else. This is an old tendency, dating back to t

Several aspects in American culture contribute to this: - prioritization of the ability to make a buck over all else. This is an old tendency, dating back to the early 1800s. - Postmodernism ruined the general reputation of the fields it touched. The Sokal Hoax was very famous. - Most liberal arts majors didn't seem to work hard, or to work on hard problems. This in contrast to the engineering major slaving away until midnight 6 hours per week. - pg has an essay on this; I forget its name, but the "drop-out-to" lattice in college - people often drop out to easier majors. Psychology or English are roughly at the bottom of that lattice where I went to school; things like CS, Math, Chemical Engineering or Physics are near the top of the lattice. So... yeah. "Couldn't hack it, got a English degree, now serving coffee" stories show up enough to, at minimum, distort perception. Add those together, and it's a pretty potent mix for looking coldly at the humanities as a useful thing.