Barrett Garese

Y'All Stupid: 3 Ways Language Is Tearing Us Apart (& How to Fix It)

The link above leads to Justin Kownacki’s treatise addressing the current anti-intellectual and anti-complexity trends permeating society. It’s a good and important read, and you should read it before you read my thoughts below.

While I disagree with a few of his examples, and disagree heartily with the idea that the symptoms are limited to language [Note: Justin didn’t necessarily imply this, I just want to be on the record about this trend manifesting itself outside of textual encounters] I agree fully that there is a decades-old backlash against intellectualism and intelligence. We’re beginning to see the effects on a larger timeline as that anti-intelligence mentality passes from an older generation - who (blatant personal theory ahead!) felt like the world of computers and technology was making them, their experience, and their intelligence obsolete, and therefore rejected it - into a younger generation that has no excuse NOT to be the most cultured, intelligent, and learned generation in history.

But they’re not. They’re rejecting intelligence, intellect, and education (personal and institutional) - perhaps because information is so easy to come by and find that it has no value anymore. Does the lack of effort needed to obtain a bit (or byte) of information man that the information itself has no value? Is the expectation that one can find information at any time, from anywhere, removing the necessity to actually keep said information in one’s brain?

Whatever the reason or reasoning (if indeed there is any) the fact remains: intelligence, intellectualism, and simple reasoning are under attack. It’s somehow okay to be dumb now, and people are embracing it at a staggering rate. Simple, basic logic and reasoning hold no sway in vast sections of the populace, and even the idea of opinion versus fact has fallen into a gray area of differentiation. “Is” has been replaced by “I think” even when it’s obvious that no thought went into the process at all. “I believe” is now “is,” even when it’s not.

I can be very hyperbolic when I’m passionate about something, but I don’t think I’m being overly so here: It’s hurting the country and the world. Dumb is the new black; but it’s not a fashion, it’s a lifestyle choice. I don’t know where this is leading - perhaps a new Renaissance, perhaps Idiocracy - but I’m not as optimistic as I’d like to be that it’ll turn out alright.