Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are morons because they have this pretense of anti-intellectualism as intellectualism which drives me crazy. Like Palin's little wink or Beck mixing his sneakers with suits. It's the ultimate in democratic stupidity.
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I'm with you. I'd add that this "folksy anti-intellectualism" is actually itself a species of relativism. It denies the value of knowing more, and of having more training--and privileges the reactions of the "gut" over those of the "brain." In other words it both proposes a total relativism of ideas ("even though I know nothing, my ideas are just as good as those of people smarter and more educated than me") it also proposes a kind of nihilism of spirit ("my convictions are de facto true because I say so, and need not stand up to any rational or empirical test whatsover").
It's a dangerous combination. You look at "tea party" types, who are willing to heckle and deride grieving mothers in order to stand up for insurance companies... and you realize that the danger here isn't that their convictions are too strong. It's that their conviction is in the service of
nothing. It's
complete moral emptiness and blackness--and it is very scary.
http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/v...arty-patriots/
I mean, we can say that these people are idiots. But we can't dismiss them as idiots, because their ideology leads in a direction that we must not go. And that has nothing to do with conservatism vs. liberalism--it has to do with the conviction that we can build a greater polity together vs. the conviction that this world is an illusion, and most of its inhabitants are doomed infidels anyway, so callous cruelty and total nihilism become options in a way that they wouldn't otherwise.