this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025
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Shit Americans Say
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I'm confused about this entire book/library sequence. Is John saying that libraries and reading are leftist things?
The thing about anti-intellectualism is that its proponents never consider the possibility that they themselves can be "intellectual". They think of intellectual people as having some sort of inborn superpower and that they have no choice but to be grovellingly deferential toward them, which they would rightly hate. But they can just read books and become intellectual themselves ๐คทโ The shit's open source. And it's open source even if you're poor, because of LIBRARIES!
Right Wing politics are based around hierarchy, the idea of being above other people. Rich > poor, American > immigrant, me > you. In order for right wing propaganda to work on idiots like this, they need to make it seem like the people who aren't falling for it are below them in some way. This narrative that intellectuals are either brainwashed or knowingly brainwashing other people compensates for the noticeable difference in smarts and makes that imagined reality that much more tempting. They're not "uneducated", they just naturally knew better than to get brainwashed because of their massively superior true American brain! Fascism needs to be flattering in order to be convincing because it has nothing else except fear to offer.