Ignorance in the United States is a huge source of pain, political commentary, and the butt of insensitive jokes. People often rave about how media fuels the praise of ignorance by the masses. This ignores what the intellectual community has done to promote this culture.
Intellectual culture is often elitist with attitudes of superiority/inferiority towards people that are considered unintelligent. This is wrong because it ignores causes of "unintelligence" such as low-quality public education, stress, trauma, poverty, developmental disabilities, or simply lack of experience. The public has repeatedly been taken advantage of by "experts", talking-heads, and thought leaders. People involved in intellectual culture often respond by making fun of those who fall for it. This is a form of victim blaming.
Intellectual culture is strongly tied to academia. Academic culture is very narcissistic and focuses on reputation. Higher education gatekeeps and is often only accessible to people who are wealthy. Academic culture has historically looked down on social justice: academic reform hasn't happened despite valid innovations and alternatives discussed as early as the 1930's, action research continues to be rejected after decades, and we still have unethical research and data collection practices after a long history of unethical studies. Intellectual culture often rejects types of intelligence that are not related to academia. Examples include but are not limited to: -social intelligence -emotional intelligence
-creative intelligence
-mechanical intelligence
-artistic intelligence
People don't listen to intellectuals, but intellectuals don't listen to people. It's a two-way street.
Here's what intellectuals- and anyone- can do to help change this:
1. Advocate for academic reforms such as inclusion and legitimacy of competency-based education.
2. Promote action research as an alternative to traditional data collection in both government and academics.
3. Call out unethical practices such as low participant stipend amounts on studies of vulnerable populations, offensive survey questions, incomplete survey demographics, and studies done on communities rather than with communities.
4. Call out people posing as experts who spread misinformation on subjects outside their expertise. 5. Do not insult or make fun of people who believe misinformation. 6. If someone is trying to understand a concept you are discussing, make an effort to include them in the conversation and explain it in a way that they can understand. Do so respectfully in a way that is not condescending or infantilizing.
7. Promote free educational resources and advice on how to access information freely, including resources at your local public library.
8. Promote information on education programs and scholarships that are accessible, affordable, and easy to qualify for and receive.
9. Advocate for public school funding reform.
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