There's no such thing as a conservative intellectual — only apologists for right-wing power
There's no such thing as a conservative intellectual — only apologists for right-wing power
From Burke to Buckley to Patrick Deneen, we've seen a 200-year history of defending the indefensible
Commentary: Longtime former Republican on Patrick Deneen and the demise of the conservative intellectual
This is incorrect.
There is a such thing as a "conservative intellectual". It's just that they've been long since drowned out by the rest of the party, and the right-wing voting base has no appetite for actual, sensible conservative policies right now.
Name one conservative policy that has furthered mankind. Prohibition, voting rights, sexuality, drug war, terrorism; time after time they’ve been wrong. Even fiscally they run up the deficit. Their only role is to preserve hierarchy and maintain power
Name one conservative policy that has furthered mankind.
Richard Nixon was at the helm when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was founded. I believe he also was responsible for protecting national parks, but I didn't bother fact-checking that one.
https://www.epa.gov/history#:~:text=EPA was created on December,human health and the environment.
Now, granted, modern conservative politics are garbage-culture war bullshit, but we need to be cautious of forgetting history. Rewriting history is their game.
Go ahead and list an example of one of those past conservative intellectuals and we'll see how long it takes to dig up an example of them saying something like Civil Rights protesters are all secret communist agents or that child labor and vagrancy laws and debtors prisons are good things.
Like, I get the appeal in wanting to believe the other side is just as smart and well meaning as our side is, but there's just no basis for that in the historical record. They've always been like this and we just keep forgetting.
One can be an intellectual and still a huge piece of shit. Theyre not mutually exclusive. People like Milton Friedman or Henry Kissinger a undebatably intellectuals... but that doesn't mean they're angels. It just means they wield their intellect as a whip to beat their opponents with, rather than raising society as a whole.
Honestly this whole "conservatives are just a bunch of dumb rabid animals" is they exact sentiment they want us to feel. Because then we never look at the deeper issues that are actually affecting our world.
"sensible" conservative policies is such a heavy cope
Name one.
You could read the article instead of just responding to the headline.
This was a thoughtful and dense article but I'm glad I finished it. I learned the name of a pedophile priest in the process (Marcial Maciel) but otherwise only reinforced what I already know from other sources. Oh, and it led me to a WP article from 2021 about how the GOP inflates book sales, which I posted on Lemmy.
This article - and its headline - aren’t perfect. But the anti-intellectualism that’s deeply rooted into American leadership of what’s now seen mostly in the conservative platform is well documented and known. Check out Anti-intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter for a lot of support for what this short article tries to convey. And since that book’s 1964 writings, it’s only become stronger.
The conclusion paragraph is what I think most people are best taking away from this piece (not the overly-broad headline, which honestly is just clickbait compared to the substance of the article): “Ideas those may be, but the product of genuine intellectuals — those who employ critical reasoning and approach facts honestly — they are not. Ever since the Enlightenment, there has been a perpetual battle, a war of words, between those who would make the world a little freer, a little healthier, a little fairer and a little saner, and those who are viscerally repelled by such markers of secular progress. We see the practical consequences of this conflict everywhere, from the ruined cities of Ukraine to our own barbarously retrograde state legislatures. It is necessary for each of us to know which side we are on in the intellectual struggle of this chaotic century.”
There is a battle for truth, facts, and logic happening right now. And while there may be some conservatives who abide by those values, the party and its leadership have verifiably demonstrated otherwise. From trickle down economics to opposing universal healthcare (and nearly every major issue between), the facts simply do not support the party stance. Anti-intellectualism in real life, played out with real consequences, supported by masses willing to vote against their own interests.
Just because media and conservative leaders think Kissinger and Friedman are intellectual’s doesn’t mean history will. Define intellectual. IMHO it’s someone that the majority of people think of as thought leader, who has good ideas for society. Cambodia and Neoliberalism will not age well. Just because someone does a big thing doesn’t make them an intellectual. By that metric, Trump is an intellectual.
I remember as a kid Kissinger being revered as this great diplomat.... Then I read Christopher Hitchens book about him... Holy shit... That man is pure evil.
Intellectual or not, he's a monster.
I was hoping this politics community would be reasonable and have good discussion.
instead we just get more of r/politics
Social media perpetuating identity politics then acting confused when there's such a big divide in this country.
I liked r/politics. My political identity is enlightened centrist.
Nah lemmy is even further left than Reddit. What would you expect from an anti corporate decentralized group. Lemmy is basically communism of social media.
You are either a far left echo chamber member here or human trash. They see no difference.
Looks like lemmy politics is just a rehash of r/politics. What was the point then of coming onto Lemmy, why didn't ya'll just stay in your Reddit echo chamber?
"No true Scotsman" fallacy in action. It's rare to see it in such a pristine condition.
(For the record, I'm an unabashed, unapologetic leftist. But this article is bullshit from graf 1 to the end.)
That's not really how that fallacy works. No True Scotsman is a reactionary fallacy.