I am not sure how much of this is true. In India for example - people do get called "Kitabi Kida"(bookworm) and I forget but there is a insult for people who have gained knowledge from reading books but aren't street smart.
India elected Narendra Modi who is decidedly nowhere as educated as previous prime minister. The state I am from(Bihar) had series of Chief Ministers who weren't all the educated(or even intelligent as a matter of fact).
I think people select their politicians differently than how they would select their Doctor or mechanic to repair their car or engine. I don't need my doctor to relate to my economic difficulties to treat my illness but this may be a desirable trait in a politician.
The point is - smart people are not always likable and in a politician likability and ability to relate yourself to him/her(even if faked) are desired qualities.
The author may have a point about schools spending lot of money on stadiums and sports and ignoring investment in science and technology but there may be other reasons for that - other than unbridled hate for smart people.
I think there is clear distinction between being literate and being smart. Many politicians that you noted or otherwise, have used their smartness and political acumen, to achieve what they wanted. Their smartness mostly reflects in the form of misleading voices, captivating their electorate's emotions. Dishonest, but smart. I think an achievement in STEM is not the only proof of smartness.
As far as Kitabi Kida goes - to my understanding, it is used for those who spent inordinate amount of time with books - not necessarily a insult for being smart. I think there's a subtle distinction here too.
>>In India for example - people do get called "Kitabi Kida"(bookworm)
We also have a saying: पढोगे लिखोगे बनोगे नवाब, खेलोगे कूदोगे बनोगे ख़राब
Which literally translates to education makes you a king, and playing makes you spoilt.
The generic किताबी कीड़ा insult is largely for nerds with awkward interests and lifestyles.
>>I forget but there is a insult for people who have gained knowledge from reading books but aren't street smart.
Mostly in our culture we try to accumulate a lot at little effort, so cheating is a valuable skill.
>>India elected Narendra Modi who is decidedly nowhere as educated as previous prime minister. The state I am from(Bihar) had series of Chief Ministers who weren't all the educated(or even intelligent as a matter of fact).
For the most of India's political history leaders were about representing people and segments of society backward compared to already well of folks. So what matters really is what policy outlook you have.
But you still have Jawaharlal Nehru who was the prime minister for 17 years, Manmohan Singh was for 10 years. Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi were both well read and groomed individuals. And you could say Indira was a far better Prime minister than we've had since Nehru.
You have like a good 40 years of well read people running the country.
>>I think people select their politicians differently than how they would select their Doctor or mechanic to repair their car or engine.
No, its the same. If a person is a deep bigot, violence monger from within, he choses leaders who are best at that. Its just that intention doesn't show on people's faces. And whatever they may say outside, they vote with their hearts at the voting booth.
>>The point is - smart people are not always likable and in a politician likability and ability to relate yourself to him/her(even if faked) are desired qualities.
The Doctor analogy describes this better. You chose a good doctor to treat your heart. You don't go to a bad one whole smiles and cracks jokes.
> India elected Narendra Modi who is decidedly nowhere as educated as previous prime minister.
Yet he promotes technology (Startup India, Paperless/Digital Locker, Digital ID, Live tracking of projects online, EVMs, Soil testing labs, Solar) much more than one of the IIT educated Chief Minister. The point is that a good leader does not need fancy degrees from fancy colleges.
Not much of it is true. It's a very old derogatory attack, that goes back to the foundations of the US and the earlier colonies. The 'cultured' Western European elites mocked the region back then as uncivilized, filled with barbarians and simpletons, and so on. This was of course a time when people like Adams, Madison, Jefferson, Paine and Benjamin Franklin were actually arguing and then implementing enlightenment policies in political fact, while nearly all of Europe would proceed to be ruled by despots for another 100-200 years. To say nothing of the flight of people from Europe to American shores over the coming century plus, desperate to escape extreme poverty in Western Europe. And yet the snobbish attacks continued just the same.
Take for example the song, Yankee Doodle, one of the more amusing cases of this in action -
"Traditions place its origin in a pre-Revolutionary War song originally sung by British military officers to mock the disheveled, disorganized colonial "Yankees" with whom they served in the French and Indian War" ... "The British troops sang it to make fun of their stereotype of the American soldier as a Yankee simpleton who thought that he was stylish if he simply stuck a feather in his cap."
"It was also popular among the Americans as a song of defiance."
Being well-eduxated doesn't make for a good leader; Rahul Gandhi has a better educational pedigree than Narendra Modi, but in no world is he a better leader.
There are insults for smart people in many countries.
In Britain, for example, there's a whole attitude about anybody daring to appear smart, well read, etc that's combined with class putdowns and terms like "pretentious wanker" and such.
Or, what americans would deride as a "nerd" for Brits it would be a "swot" (but it's meaning I think combines nerd with teacher's pet and bookworm).
French have "intello", a derogatory term for intellectual types. Greeks have a similar connotation "kulturiaris" (and a term for nerd/geek that's "spasiklas").
In Spanish, where the author says he couldn't find a term for "geek", they have "empollon".
I think almost every culture has a term for people who are on the asperger spectrum and have high IQ but low EQ. In Chinese, "理工男" translates to roughly "Science Guy" and refers to people who are like Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory. "书呆子" means bookworm and refers to people with a lot of book smarts but not much street smarts.
I turned to Google Translate in search of a French translation for the English word “geek.” There wasn’t one.
Maybe ask a French person then. “Intello” (dismissive diminutive of the word “intellectuel”) is in very common usage amongst school kids, and has been since at least the 60s. “Premier de la classe” (first of the class) is also used very pejoratively by children. Recently though, the French have been very happy to use the word “geek” (albeit pronounced with a French accent) in its original English meaning.
On the other hand, languages like French are extremely rich in insults for stupid people: “bete comme ses pieds,” or “dumb as hell,” literally means “as stupid as his/her feet.”
American English is full of expressions just as colorful than the French in that regard, eg “not the brightest crayon in the box”, “not the sharpest tool in the shed”, “dumber than a bag of hammers”, etc.
This blog post is just a succession of these easily falsiable generalizations that try to use pseudo-linguistic reasoning to demonstrate a blanket sweeping subjective statement (“Americans hate smart people”).
And doing it badly -- all the countries he mentions have derogatory terms analogous to nerd, but he couldn't get to them in Google Translate by searching for "geek", so he came to the conclusion that they don't have anti-intellectual words at all.
No, that's only half of it. The other half is to smugly remind us how much smarter Democrats are than Republicans.
Clinton > Trump
Gore > Bush
Stevenson > Eisenhower
Remarkable how, in this writer's mind, an intellectual noted for "promotion of progressive causes in the Democratic Party" is obviously superior to a five-star general who played a very key part in the Allies defeating Hitler in WWII.
Anti-intellectualism is pretty strong in the UK too. For example in one of the defining moments of the Brexit campaign, Michael Gove was confronted by an open letter from a large number of leading economists saying how damaging Brexit would be to the economy and said “people in this country have had enough of experts”.
I think the author entirely misses the primary issue due to linguistic and/or cultural context omissions.
Generally speaking, when someone is called a nerd or (insert uncool descriptive modifier), it's not implied that being smart or studious is something people should be embarrassed of.
Instead, it's implying the lack of some other social skill, trait or normative behavior (i.e., not participating in sports as a child or general difficulty fitting in).
For example, being a genius or reliable hard worker is almost universally admired. Yes, even in the United States. However, if an individual is brilliant yet lacks the social skills to fit in, appears to try too hard relative to the group or makes others feel uncomfortable, their behavior may be seen as idiosyncratic or weird.
Individuals that can display their cognitive abilities while inspiring, impressing or leading others are usually admired.
I've noted that the journalists at The Register are unable to write an article about scientists discovering, inventing something without using the word "boffin". See for example:
In South Africa, the previous President, Jacob Zuma, famously used a label “clever blacks” for well educated black people who he felt didn’t support his populist / traditionalist policies. across cultures in SA, there is a definite “macho” bias and a bias towards “eloquence” (sometimes at the expense of thoughtfulness). I have spent substantial time in Asia and both of these differences are very obviously different. I would say that Europe is somewhere in between.
Sorry, but America is a society that enshrines and holds intelligence so, so high. If you are "smart", you are afforded all sorts of privileges that everyone else misses out on. The intelligent don't need a sob story or a defense in America, they are scoring a close second to those that already have and control the wealth and resources here.
America, and most western countries, hold wealth in high esteem. Intelligent people tend to make more money, so they get in to positions that afford them privilege more easily. But there are plenty of counter-examples to that. Stupid people get to the top through other means and win those privileges, and clever people who choose to work in less well paid jobs aren't given any privilege at all.
Intelligence itself rarely commands much respect at all.
I see an extreme focus on GPA, even employers considering that score during hiring. This is fairly alien to the other Western cultures I've sampled.
Also the latest "taboo" is discrimination on intelligence. You can not help it that you were born below the IQ Bell curve. "You just gotta work harder for it" is like telling an overweight person to "just stop eating so much". Difficulty learning new material puts you at an eternal disadvantage, with no way to catch up to what smart people are learning in their teens and early twenties.
The big five openly discriminate on intelligence. Intelligence and aptitude is also correlated with your upbringing (Did you have smart parents to guide your academic career and interests? Were they rich enough to help put you through a good college?).
For all the renewed interest in identity politics and combating discrimination, intelligence is really the odd one out. High school teachers berate you for something that isn't your fault, it is commonly accepted to call out your low IQ, no matter how much you want to work for a tech company -- even if they favor women, poor people, minorities, war veterans, the disabled -- you are not going to get hired to fill some neurodiversity quota.
The ease with which the left ridicules, stigmatizes, and marginalizes right politicians (Bush & Trump) and those that vote for them is astounding to me. "Those idiot low-educated racists ruined it all! They are not smart enough to vote rationally!". Change "low-intelligence" with any other protected status and such language becomes vile and primitive.
I don't remember where I read it, but there are supposed centers in America for which virtues are held in high esteem. Intelligence was Cambridge, MA, wealth was Manhattan, NYC, power was Washington D.C., and health was Berkley, CA.
Smart people seem particularly prone to intellectual fads (religions in their own way) and being eager to use coercion to implement their ideas. Maybe it’s good to have a great mass of down-to-earth, practically-minded folks as a counterbalance. Open ridicule of the hoity-toity elite has been quintessentially American for all our history.
> Maybe it’s time to take a cue from our proudly pro-intelligence and pro-education cultural cousins across the Atlantic.
Nope. I can live with the downsides of anti-intellectualism in trade for escaping the cult of "genius". People who claim to know better than the rest of us are dangerous.
in America you have the reverse: anti-"intellectual" genius cults. Eg: Gates and Zuckerberg. I've seen many people, even in CS, justify leaving college because those folks did.
I think that both things can be true. The problem is most people conflate all of the "establishment" into one. For example, one could rightly point out how terrible economists who hailed free trade as being a good thing ended up robbing many people of their lifelihood but in the same breath claim those same experts say climate change is real, whilst not knowing that these experts are separate groups of people.
I wish this attitude was applied equally to people in private industry like Elon Musk instead of only slamming government employees like the original article (and most similar articles).
The author has a track record of intellectual humour, particularly with a political bent to it. I'm trying to decide if this article is unintentionally ironic or just pretending to be unintentionally ironic.
"It sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws - for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not on poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were and we never beat our chest. We built great, big things, made ungodly technological advanced, explored the universe, cured diseases and we cultivated the world's greatest artists AND the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men. We aspired to intelligence, we didn't belittle it. It didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election and we didn't scare so easy. We were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed... by great men, men who were revered. First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.”
This was a really fun article to read. However, extrapolating American's insulting words for smart people to ...... the culture as a whole is dumb and uneducated .... is insulting.
Anti-intellectualism in American politics, as the author pointed out with Bush, is mostly made up. In most cases it's designed to make the politician more appealing and easier to understand.
Fwiw, I had the opposite experience when coming to the us as a high school exchange student from Germany. I did well in school, and got much more derision for this in Germany than in the US. Could possibly have something to do with me being an exotic foreigner though, not sure.
I suspect that 'smart-people insults' are somewhat universal.
Ironically (the article's from japantimes.com) there's a (reportedly well-known) Japanese saying that might explain it: “The nail that sticks out shall be hammered down.”
But there's more to "geek". In circuses and carnivals, a geek would capture chickens, bite their heads off, and eat them. Now you gotta remember that most of the audiences lived on farms, or had family who did, so chasing chickens and cutting their heads off was pretty normal. But still ...
So anyway, "geek" is very different from "bookworm" or "egghead". It's more like unconventional, daring and uninhibited.
As a foreigner learning American English + (pop) culture in the US one of my favorite things is to ask people to tell me the difference between geek and nerd. Originally because I was having a hard time grasping not so much the meaning of the words but the connotations and projected values by those using the words. I still ask that question and find the discrepancies amusing.
But I never heard anything about bitting chicken heads off and all that. Amazing!
[+] [-] gnufied|7 years ago|reply
India elected Narendra Modi who is decidedly nowhere as educated as previous prime minister. The state I am from(Bihar) had series of Chief Ministers who weren't all the educated(or even intelligent as a matter of fact).
I think people select their politicians differently than how they would select their Doctor or mechanic to repair their car or engine. I don't need my doctor to relate to my economic difficulties to treat my illness but this may be a desirable trait in a politician.
The point is - smart people are not always likable and in a politician likability and ability to relate yourself to him/her(even if faked) are desired qualities.
The author may have a point about schools spending lot of money on stadiums and sports and ignoring investment in science and technology but there may be other reasons for that - other than unbridled hate for smart people.
[+] [-] setum|7 years ago|reply
As far as Kitabi Kida goes - to my understanding, it is used for those who spent inordinate amount of time with books - not necessarily a insult for being smart. I think there's a subtle distinction here too.
[+] [-] kamaal|7 years ago|reply
We also have a saying: पढोगे लिखोगे बनोगे नवाब, खेलोगे कूदोगे बनोगे ख़राब
Which literally translates to education makes you a king, and playing makes you spoilt.
The generic किताबी कीड़ा insult is largely for nerds with awkward interests and lifestyles.
>>I forget but there is a insult for people who have gained knowledge from reading books but aren't street smart.
Mostly in our culture we try to accumulate a lot at little effort, so cheating is a valuable skill.
>>India elected Narendra Modi who is decidedly nowhere as educated as previous prime minister. The state I am from(Bihar) had series of Chief Ministers who weren't all the educated(or even intelligent as a matter of fact).
For the most of India's political history leaders were about representing people and segments of society backward compared to already well of folks. So what matters really is what policy outlook you have.
But you still have Jawaharlal Nehru who was the prime minister for 17 years, Manmohan Singh was for 10 years. Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi were both well read and groomed individuals. And you could say Indira was a far better Prime minister than we've had since Nehru.
You have like a good 40 years of well read people running the country.
>>I think people select their politicians differently than how they would select their Doctor or mechanic to repair their car or engine.
No, its the same. If a person is a deep bigot, violence monger from within, he choses leaders who are best at that. Its just that intention doesn't show on people's faces. And whatever they may say outside, they vote with their hearts at the voting booth.
>>The point is - smart people are not always likable and in a politician likability and ability to relate yourself to him/her(even if faked) are desired qualities.
The Doctor analogy describes this better. You chose a good doctor to treat your heart. You don't go to a bad one whole smiles and cracks jokes.
[+] [-] virtuabhi|7 years ago|reply
Yet he promotes technology (Startup India, Paperless/Digital Locker, Digital ID, Live tracking of projects online, EVMs, Soil testing labs, Solar) much more than one of the IIT educated Chief Minister. The point is that a good leader does not need fancy degrees from fancy colleges.
[+] [-] Semiapies|7 years ago|reply
Ted Rall, ladies and gentlemen.
[+] [-] adventured|7 years ago|reply
Not much of it is true. It's a very old derogatory attack, that goes back to the foundations of the US and the earlier colonies. The 'cultured' Western European elites mocked the region back then as uncivilized, filled with barbarians and simpletons, and so on. This was of course a time when people like Adams, Madison, Jefferson, Paine and Benjamin Franklin were actually arguing and then implementing enlightenment policies in political fact, while nearly all of Europe would proceed to be ruled by despots for another 100-200 years. To say nothing of the flight of people from Europe to American shores over the coming century plus, desperate to escape extreme poverty in Western Europe. And yet the snobbish attacks continued just the same.
Take for example the song, Yankee Doodle, one of the more amusing cases of this in action -
"Traditions place its origin in a pre-Revolutionary War song originally sung by British military officers to mock the disheveled, disorganized colonial "Yankees" with whom they served in the French and Indian War" ... "The British troops sang it to make fun of their stereotype of the American soldier as a Yankee simpleton who thought that he was stylish if he simply stuck a feather in his cap."
"It was also popular among the Americans as a song of defiance."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Doodle
[+] [-] prab97|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Ar-Curunir|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Robinxd|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coldtea|7 years ago|reply
In Britain, for example, there's a whole attitude about anybody daring to appear smart, well read, etc that's combined with class putdowns and terms like "pretentious wanker" and such.
Or, what americans would deride as a "nerd" for Brits it would be a "swot" (but it's meaning I think combines nerd with teacher's pet and bookworm).
French have "intello", a derogatory term for intellectual types. Greeks have a similar connotation "kulturiaris" (and a term for nerd/geek that's "spasiklas").
In Spanish, where the author says he couldn't find a term for "geek", they have "empollon".
In Italian the same would be secchione.
[+] [-] shalmanese|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GuiA|7 years ago|reply
Maybe ask a French person then. “Intello” (dismissive diminutive of the word “intellectuel”) is in very common usage amongst school kids, and has been since at least the 60s. “Premier de la classe” (first of the class) is also used very pejoratively by children. Recently though, the French have been very happy to use the word “geek” (albeit pronounced with a French accent) in its original English meaning.
On the other hand, languages like French are extremely rich in insults for stupid people: “bete comme ses pieds,” or “dumb as hell,” literally means “as stupid as his/her feet.”
American English is full of expressions just as colorful than the French in that regard, eg “not the brightest crayon in the box”, “not the sharpest tool in the shed”, “dumber than a bag of hammers”, etc.
This blog post is just a succession of these easily falsiable generalizations that try to use pseudo-linguistic reasoning to demonstrate a blanket sweeping subjective statement (“Americans hate smart people”).
[+] [-] panic|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coldtea|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blablabla123|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PhantomGremlin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seanhunter|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mercurialshark|7 years ago|reply
Generally speaking, when someone is called a nerd or (insert uncool descriptive modifier), it's not implied that being smart or studious is something people should be embarrassed of.
Instead, it's implying the lack of some other social skill, trait or normative behavior (i.e., not participating in sports as a child or general difficulty fitting in).
For example, being a genius or reliable hard worker is almost universally admired. Yes, even in the United States. However, if an individual is brilliant yet lacks the social skills to fit in, appears to try too hard relative to the group or makes others feel uncomfortable, their behavior may be seen as idiosyncratic or weird.
Individuals that can display their cognitive abilities while inspiring, impressing or leading others are usually admired.
[+] [-] JoachimS|7 years ago|reply
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/28/hacking_motion_cont...
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/27/screaming_channels_...
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/01/ncsc_ubuntu/
[+] [-] wemdyjreichert|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bbcbasic|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] zakum1|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hegz|7 years ago|reply
All of these words exist and are used in other English speaking countries.
[+] [-] wyclif|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seanmcdirmid|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DocTomoe|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kbos87|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] onion2k|7 years ago|reply
Intelligence itself rarely commands much respect at all.
[+] [-] labbyz|7 years ago|reply
Also the latest "taboo" is discrimination on intelligence. You can not help it that you were born below the IQ Bell curve. "You just gotta work harder for it" is like telling an overweight person to "just stop eating so much". Difficulty learning new material puts you at an eternal disadvantage, with no way to catch up to what smart people are learning in their teens and early twenties.
The big five openly discriminate on intelligence. Intelligence and aptitude is also correlated with your upbringing (Did you have smart parents to guide your academic career and interests? Were they rich enough to help put you through a good college?).
For all the renewed interest in identity politics and combating discrimination, intelligence is really the odd one out. High school teachers berate you for something that isn't your fault, it is commonly accepted to call out your low IQ, no matter how much you want to work for a tech company -- even if they favor women, poor people, minorities, war veterans, the disabled -- you are not going to get hired to fill some neurodiversity quota.
The ease with which the left ridicules, stigmatizes, and marginalizes right politicians (Bush & Trump) and those that vote for them is astounding to me. "Those idiot low-educated racists ruined it all! They are not smart enough to vote rationally!". Change "low-intelligence" with any other protected status and such language becomes vile and primitive.
[+] [-] man2525|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wildmusings|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WalterGR|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mdimec4|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WalterGR|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rectang|7 years ago|reply
Nope. I can live with the downsides of anti-intellectualism in trade for escaping the cult of "genius". People who claim to know better than the rest of us are dangerous.
[+] [-] lazyasciiart|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WalterGR|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Ar-Curunir|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] noobermin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nerflad|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] minikites|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cbsmith|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sabedevops|7 years ago|reply
― Aaron Sorkin, The Newsroom Script Episode 1
[+] [-] anonu|7 years ago|reply
Anti-intellectualism in American politics, as the author pointed out with Bush, is mostly made up. In most cases it's designed to make the politician more appealing and easier to understand.
[+] [-] noobermin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] phreeza|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 8bitsrule|7 years ago|reply
Ironically (the article's from japantimes.com) there's a (reportedly well-known) Japanese saying that might explain it: “The nail that sticks out shall be hammered down.”
(Found that at this longest-url-contender:) https://www.quora.com/What-do-you-think-about-the-Japanese-p...
[+] [-] mirimir|7 years ago|reply
But there's more to "geek". In circuses and carnivals, a geek would capture chickens, bite their heads off, and eat them. Now you gotta remember that most of the audiences lived on farms, or had family who did, so chasing chickens and cutting their heads off was pretty normal. But still ...
So anyway, "geek" is very different from "bookworm" or "egghead". It's more like unconventional, daring and uninhibited.
[+] [-] goliatone|7 years ago|reply