Anti-intellectualism and the "dumbing down" of America

There is a growing and disturbing trend of anti-intellectual elitism in American culture. It's the dismissal of science, the arts, and humanities and their replacement by entertainment, self-righteousness, ignorance, and deliberate gullibility.

Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason, says in an article in theWashington Post, "Dumbness, to paraphrase the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has been steadily defined downward for several decades, by a combination of heretofore irresistible forces. These include the triumph of video culture over print culture; a disjunction between Americans' rising level of formal education and their shaky grasp of basic geography, science and history; and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism."

There has been a long tradition of anti-intellectualism in America, unlike most other Western countries. Richard Hofstadter, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his book, Anti-Intellectualism In American Life, describes how the vast underlying foundations of anti-elite, anti-reason and anti-science have been infused into America's political and social fabric. Famous science fiction writer Isaac Asimov once said:

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

WE don't have to look any further than this site, to realise how widespread such anti-intellectual anti-academic, anti-science/maths/technology positions can be...

YOU only need to look at the outright garbage and blatant lies easily found in pseudo scientific/health/nutrition articles ==
"Proof that meat is killing you !"
"Veganism will save the world !"
"Sugar (sic) causes 40% of all cancers in the world !".

NEED I say more ?

eddie wrote:Nobody really knows what causes alot of cancers because, like the common cold (still not cured) no two cancers are the same.

Nobody really knows what cures cancer either.
Otherwise it'd be done and dusted by now.

As for "science" - that changes its mind rapidly, as nobody really knows.....

eddie wrote:They don't know why it works really.....The doctors are just as shocked as everyone else mostly!

sassy wrote:Rags, I'm really glad you aren't in charge of my treatment, cancer isn't just tumours.

Raggamuffin wrote:

sassy wrote:Rags, I'm really glad you aren't in charge of my treatment, cancer isn't just tumours.

I didn't say it was. I said radiotherapy blasts tumours. Obviously, one wouldn't use it on all types of cancer.

Don't start on me - you've been a pain in the arse for the past few days as it is.

sassy wrote:

Raggamuffin wrote:

I didn't say it was. I said radiotherapy blasts tumours. Obviously, one wouldn't use it on all types of cancer.

Don't start on me - you've been a pain in the arse for the past few days as it is.

 

eddie wrote:Nobody really knows what causes alot of cancers because, like the common cold (still not cured) no two cancers are the same.

Nobody really knows what cures cancer either.
Otherwise it'd be done and dusted by now.

As for "science" - that changes its mind rapidly, as nobody really knows.....

HoratioTarr wrote:

eddie wrote:Nobody really knows what causes alot of cancers because, like the common cold (still not cured) no two cancers are the same.

Nobody really knows what cures cancer either.
Otherwise it'd be done and dusted by now.

As for "science" - that changes its mind rapidly, as nobody really knows.....

Research is now pointing more towards helping the body heal itself rather than bombarding it with poison, which is basically what chemo is.  The immune system is what decides whether someone survives cancer or not, I believe, and our immune systems are undermined by a variety of lifestyle choices.

HoratioTarr wrote:

eddie wrote:Nobody really knows what causes alot of cancers because, like the common cold (still not cured) no two cancers are the same.

Nobody really knows what cures cancer either.
Otherwise it'd be done and dusted by now.

As for "science" - that changes its mind rapidly, as nobody really knows.....

Research is now pointing more towards helping the body heal itself rather than bombarding it with poison, which is basically what chemo is.  The immune system is what decides whether someone survives cancer or not, I believe, and our immune systems are undermined by a variety of lifestyle choices.

Raggamuffin wrote:

HoratioTarr wrote:

Research is now pointing more towards helping the body heal itself rather than bombarding it with poison, which is basically what chemo is.  The immune system is what decides whether someone survives cancer or not, I believe, and our immune systems are undermined by a variety of lifestyle choices.

Cancer cells can actually recruit part of the immune system though, and fool it into actually aiding the spread of cancer.

Immunotherapy is an emerging field which is quite exciting.

sassy wrote:

HoratioTarr wrote:

Research is now pointing more towards helping the body heal itself rather than bombarding it with poison, which is basically what chemo is.  The immune system is what decides whether someone survives cancer or not, I believe, and our immune systems are undermined by a variety of lifestyle choices.

Or in my case the leukeamia destroys my immune system, which is why they won't be able to use my immune system to help.

HoratioTarr wrote:

sassy wrote:


Or in my case the leukeamia destroys my immune system, which is why they won't be able to use my immune system to help.

What treatment are you on?