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The Intellectuals' Assault on Intelligence
American Thinker ^ | 14 Feb, 2021 | Judy Wallen

Posted on 02/14/2021 3:58:34 AM PST by MtnClimber

"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." —Leonard Cohen.

When I went to college in the 1980s, I recall how inscrutable the politics of many of my professors was. One day the professor would argue with the class over the virtues of Madison or Marx, Milton or Melville or whomever we may be studying, and then the next day the professor would completely reverse course, arguing with equal ferocity against them. The students could never figure out where the professor stood. Rumors would circulate how all of this was some kind of ploy to teach us how to think. Some would eagerly embrace the rumors, while others would laugh at those who flattered themselves with the belief that all these tiresome exercises would be enough to claim an intellectual advantage. Whatever disagreements there were, everyone agreed that questions and challenges, no matter how silly or odious, were essential to understanding.

The current class of intellectuals, whether inside the universities or outside as a product thereof, now flout the principles of logic and reason far more than their relentlessly mocked uneducated rubes ever did. Complex issues requiring thoughtful analysis of probabilistic tradeoffs and consequences are replaced with simplistic models that would have left the intellectuals of yesteryear aghast. Where complicated continuums are warranted, binary scales are substituted in which anything besides absolute purity is considered evil. False analogies, poor pattern recognition, hasty conclusions, misjudging the whole by a part, ascribing false motives and meanings have become the artisan bread and butter of the pontificating patricians. Double standards abound in which moving goalposts of unethical or even criminal behavior are applied to capture political opponents, while flexible extenders are granted to liberate supporters.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 02/14/2021 3:58:34 AM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

Now getting math problems correct is racist.


2 posted on 02/14/2021 3:59:08 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

War is Peace. Ignorance is strength.

It is all happening as Orwell prophesized.


3 posted on 02/14/2021 4:09:16 AM PST by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
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To: MtnClimber

Well written article by a very intelligent writer who is on her mark in describing left wing faux “intellectuals” as the barbarians at the gates to disassemble freedom of thought.


4 posted on 02/14/2021 4:35:47 AM PST by chuckee
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To: MtnClimber

I worked at a university for about 20 years...believe me there are lots of ‘administrators’ and wind bags, but few actual intellectuals

We even had a professor who sent out the same piece of mail 3 time and it was returned 3 times. She DID NOT know how to properly address an envelope


5 posted on 02/14/2021 5:00:09 AM PST by SMARTY (“If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law.” Winston Churchill)
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To: MtnClimber

“What we really need to do around here is to shoot a few more intellectuals.”- Nikita Kruschev


6 posted on 02/14/2021 5:27:01 AM PST by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: MtnClimber

Bkmk


7 posted on 02/14/2021 6:14:04 AM PST by sauropod (#ImpeachMcConnell. #Resist. #NotMyPresident.)
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To: MtnClimber

Critical thinking among all progressives and many non-progressives is as dead as last Thanksgiving’s turkey.


8 posted on 02/14/2021 2:37:16 PM PST by Montana_Sam (Truth lives.)
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