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Can we call it education though or is it an anti-intellectual spirit or a disdain for elitism and the idea of experts? Or perhaps mistrust of authority and expe

Can we call it education though or is it an anti-intellectual spirit or a disdain for elitism and the idea of experts? Or perhaps mistrust of authority and experts? It would seem like perhaps an uneducated but highly communal/cooperative/respectful-of-authority society would have better outcomes than one with well educated individuals who have a culture of disregard for institutional science or the idea of technocrats and bureaucrats that might know more than Joe Sixpack. You could argue that education is what creates the values we're hoping for here, but that is kind of what I'm questioning. Perhaps the culture itself is the problem not the test scores.

GordonS 6y ago
> Can we call it education though or is it an anti-intellectual spirit or a disdain for elitism and the idea of experts? Or perhaps mistrust of authority and experts? I'm sure poor education accounts for a lot of it, but it can't be the only factor - even here on HN (where I'd assume most posters are well educated) there are people claiming COVID is a non issue and/or claiming masks are dangerous. Another example are countries other than the US, such as the UK. In the beginning there were plenty doubters (hardly surprising when you've got arguably the most powerful idiot in the world claiming it's a hoax), but I see/hear very little of that these days. It could be a mistrust of authority, but a lot of people in the US seem quite happy to trust authority - as long as it's the "right" authority. For example, in the USA, you have Trump telling the most outrageous lies on a near-hourly basis, and millions believe him. On a similar vein you have ludicrous conspiracy theories like qanon, and even just plain conspiracies (without the "theory"!) about the Clinton's eating babies! As I European, I might suppose that a lot of people in the US are batshit-insane, but there has to be a reason for all that lunacy.
- nobody9999 6y ago
  >I might suppose that a lot of people in the US are batshit-insane, but there has to be a reason for all that lunacy. Peter Medawar addressed this[0] quite some time ago: "The USA is so enormous, and so numerous are its schools, colleges and religious seminaries, many devoted to special religious beliefs ranging from the unorthodox to the dotty, that we can hardly wonder at its yielding a more bounteous harvest of gobbledygook than the rest of the world put together." That sort of stuff just breeds magical thinking, conspiracy theories and all manner of other sorts of malarkey, hogwash, balderdash and hooey. [0] https://www.quotetab.com/quote/by-peter-medawar/the-usa-is-so-enormous-and-so-numerous-are-its-schools-colleges-and-religious-s https://www.quotetab.com/quote/by-peter-medawar/the-usa-is-s...

GordonS 6y ago

> Can we call it education though or is it an anti-intellectual spirit or a disdain for elitism and the idea of experts? Or perhaps mistrust of authority and experts? I'm sure poor education accounts for a lot of it, but it can't be the only factor - even here on HN (where I'd assume most posters are well educated) there are people claiming COVID is a non issue and/or claiming masks are dangerous. Another example are countries other than the US, such as the UK. In the beginning there were plenty doubters (hardly surprising when you've got arguably the most powerful idiot in the world claiming it's a hoax), but I see/hear very little of that these days. It could be a mistrust of authority, but a lot of people in the US seem quite happy to trust authority - as long as it's the "right" authority. For example, in the USA, you have Trump telling the most outrageous lies on a near-hourly basis, and millions believe him. On a similar vein you have ludicrous conspiracy theories like qanon, and even just plain conspiracies (without the "theory"!) about the Clinton's eating babies! As I European, I might suppose that a lot of people in the US are batshit-insane, but there has to be a reason for all that lunacy.

nobody9999 6y ago
>I might suppose that a lot of people in the US are batshit-insane, but there has to be a reason for all that lunacy. Peter Medawar addressed this[0] quite some time ago: "The USA is so enormous, and so numerous are its schools, colleges and religious seminaries, many devoted to special religious beliefs ranging from the unorthodox to the dotty, that we can hardly wonder at its yielding a more bounteous harvest of gobbledygook than the rest of the world put together." That sort of stuff just breeds magical thinking, conspiracy theories and all manner of other sorts of malarkey, hogwash, balderdash and hooey. [0] https://www.quotetab.com/quote/by-peter-medawar/the-usa-is-so-enormous-and-so-numerous-are-its-schools-colleges-and-religious-s https://www.quotetab.com/quote/by-peter-medawar/the-usa-is-s...