I mean, there's Fintan O'Toole and Timothy Snyder and Rick Perlstein and so many other good, smart, public-facing writers. Krugman! Ta-Nahisi! Masha Gessen!
But there's so much awfulness pretending to intellect as well.
And it has always been thus. Safire wasn't stupid but he was intellectually dishonest. Buckley was terrible, root to stem. George Will has always been a blowhard with a big vocabulary and a research team.
George Will was my graduation speaker in college and it was one of the most singularly depressing fifty minutes of my life. It was like he was created in a vat at age 65 and had never spoken to anyone under 30 in his entire lifespan
Years ago, SNL did a skit with George Will (Dana Carvey) hosting a sports quiz show, and while it didn't seem to go over with the audience, whoever wrote it had Will's style absolutely down. https://youtu.be/3QcVhyAaLnM?si=dcwomW0aGRbmVSQZ
True story, George Will single-handedly turned me on to Don DeLillo because he hated the novel "Libra" so venomously that I thought as a student "Well, if that pompous jagoff hates it, I have to give it a try."
You will pardon me as I existentially melt-down. Because I was in the audience too. Your tweet prompted me to find, indeed, you were graduating as I was starting my gig at Hub U. My brain has now turned itself inside out & I'm wearing it like a jaunty hat. When can we give you an honorary degree?
Hah! Small world. BU has largely ignored me; Rutgers, on the other hand, gave me an honorary doc of letters for my contributions to the literary legacy of New Jersey.
Makes me think of some veteran comedian explaining the comedy boom of the 90s--In 1975 we had 100 comedians and 10 were good, in 1995 we have 10,000 comedians and 12 are good.
We've got the same number of good intellectuals we ever did, but the internet oh God the internet...
Public intellectuals tend to say things that don't benefit corporations, so they trot out think-tank-funded pseudo-intellectuals. Back when there were robust non-profit public education programs you could have a Carl Sagan.
lack of community growing up and the curriculum in the public schools have changed (US). Kids aren't being taught or shown about the real world anymore in a way that can enlighten them
A horrifically tragic descent into profit driven sensationalism. A world where journalism ethics and stockholder value are in some sort of fucked up battle that is partly hidden from the eyes that care.
Social media produced platform amplification without proven qualification. In "the olden times", to get a public platform, you had to woodshed your stance over time, having it hold up to rigor and interrogation.
Now, any idiot can post "WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD - AN 83-PART THREAD"
People don't want to be told they're wrong. They don't want to think. They want their opinions validated. Pundits give people what they want, and to hell with the consequences.
Public use of the internet has grown the last 40 years. Cable “news” probably reaches more people than nonfiction books ever did. The environment for punditry has flourished while the mostly print-based media in which public intellectuals had more space to be heard has withered.
I think we do have them, but they tend to say things that are harder for platforms like YouTube and Twitter to monetize, and for MSNBC or FOX to enrage audiences. Our “platforms” and media are conducive to loud idiots.
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But there's so much awfulness pretending to intellect as well.
(I'm so sorry for you.)
We've got the same number of good intellectuals we ever did, but the internet oh God the internet...
- Upton Sinclair
Now, any idiot can post "WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD - AN 83-PART THREAD"