The big lesson of my youth was that sports matter more to the US ed system that learning. Just like competition and prizes matter more than critical thought. Trump won because he hates brains. Rush raised his base. Murdoch feeds them the agitprop. It’s so pathetic.
David Graeber wrote an essay about how sports in society— and competition— is necessary to the notion of democracy and majority rule. The problem isn’t competition— it’s spectatorship. The people watching, not the people competing. We are trained to watch.
Andrew, at some point we have to ask ourselves why Americans of all political stripes take personal offense at the idea of public funding for the vulnerable or people who lose jobs. It’s really unique how bad it is here. We are psychotically selfish.
And trained to overvalue zero sum “winning”. Kids think cooperation is for losers. And that is a socialized behavior— the socialization of winning and win, win, win, and number one in the US is disgusting
That’s great. But I’m not sure what that has to do with my point that sports is more significant and valuable and respectable than a career in education?
Sort of. Anti-intellectualism is also related to anti-elitism. Protestants were born out of wanting to read the Bible for themselves, and not having to rely on the priestly class and their Latin.
Wanting to read the Bible for yourself is an intellectual activity. Anti-intellectualism in the US is born out of a deep distain for people whose goal isn’t to *be rich*, where wealth is seen as the win. Many trumpet believe PhD’s are stupid because they’re not well off
That’s true. They believe in power by fiat, not by labor. But this particular strain of Christianity is highly visible in part because it is amplified by the anti-religious.
I’m not sure one can say that. In the US, religion touches everything. In god we trust comes out of politicians mouths and even sits on our money. Jesus and gold (prosperity gospel) IS American religion. Who are the ‘anti-religious’?
What overinflates the power of the Christian Right is the general agreement with the atheist left that their version of Christianity (the ugly version) is the only one worth talking about. As a liberal Christian, that makes me surly.
ask my kids, this is my daily dinner rant! Tho not specifically US-focused, more North American or general popular culture (which of course is heavily US-influenced). But it's not just an American phenomenon.
The gloating con intellectuals should be smart enough to know that historically, when cons start to eat their own, and they always do, its the intellectuals who they turn on pretty early in the game. Some will be protected; not all.
Comments