Zoe
JA WestenbergLove how "elitist" now just means "has the audacity to know things." Went to university? Elitist. Read a book? Elitist. Can point to a country on a map? Elitist. Meanwhile a man with a gold toilet is a man of the people.
Ariaflame
Halaana@ariaflame There's actual royalty from major countries that are more connected to people's daily lives.
Lars Brinkhoff@Halaana @ariaflame Norway has left the chat.
Peluche Cero@Halaana @ariaflame Actually, as a Spanish subject, they're not.
@peluchecero @Halaana How does being a spanish subject provide insight into royalty around the world?
@ariaflame @Halaana Outside Europe, I don't know. But all European royalty are cousins to some degree and we get tons of news about Willem and Máxima, Frederick and Mary etc etc. None of them, starting by our very own Felipe and Letizia, seems too connected with real life.
TrimTab 🇺🇦@ariaflame @Daojoan
Indeed. A man who talked about groceries as if he had only learned the word for the first time a few minutes before his speech....
Indeed. A man who talked about groceries as if he had only learned the word for the first time a few minutes before his speech....
Famisuki@Daojoan I hope we all remember Dunning Kruger effect and actually realize how little we are in knowledge.
Chuck, just Chuck@Daojoan @Ncstarguy only if the IQ test instance is not corrupted. If it will be corrupted, at least do live science test like are you better than a sixth grader. Though that can be faked to sometimes.
Easiest will be to ask them to do live exorcism without them reacting.
Easiest will be to ask them to do live exorcism without them reacting.
@Daojoan Jon Oliver: They call themselves anti-elitist then vote for a man who literally sits on a gold throne in a gold room at the top of a tall tower with his name emblazoned in gold on the outside.
Ericka Simone@Daojoan forever changing words to make themselves feel better about how stupid they are. Weird behavior.
AlgoCompSynth by znmeb 🇺🇦@Daojoan Actually, it's "Man of the Peep-Hole"
PositivDenken 🤯@Daojoan they can’t be arsed to take an effort and try to discredit those who do.
ideaPDish
VHG 🇪🇺🇺🇦
DP0@Daojoan It is just a new approach to an old dilemma: Authoritarianism is based on fraud and fraud requires intellectual superiority; i.e., the fraudster needs to know something the deceived doesn't. Hence, knowledgeable people are a threat for autocrats.
In the past, access to knowledge was limited, most people couldn't even read. But things have changed and education and knowledge are more accessible. So they've to "pollute" the knowledge through fake information and to shame knowledge.
Martin Rundkvist@mrundkvist @Daojoan
That is actually what I said: People turning away from information is exactly what I meant when speaking of the new means. Everyone has access to information and knowledge, so people need to be instigated to turn away from it. And this done by providing false information and creating doubt regarding the accessible real and factual information.
In the past, poverty and oppression were easy means to keep people uneducated. Today, more proactive ways are required.
@mrundkvist @Daojoan What makes you think we couldn't turn away, too? There are many reasons, why we haven't yet: maybe we were not the targeted audience (i.e., too left to be flipped), we were not sufficiently exposed (no Facebook, no Shitter, etc), we were too proficient in the field on which the disinformation was spread, etc.
Disinformation works like a virus: if you don't have the receptors, you're immune. But make no mistake: there may be a virus out there matching your receptors.
Von Xylofon@mrundkvist @Daojoan No, I am just saying that everyone can be fooled. Believing that this is not the case is dangerous.
Of course, education helps building up resilience against disinformation. And, indeed, some people are more resilient to disinformation than others. However, everyone has their soft spot, a weakness or just an area where they're not so proficient. And one should bei aware of that as this also is an expression of a free, open, and resilient mind: know your weakness.
Cat!@Daojoan The thing that burns me up is that there is a relationship between education and class, but that is not an inevitability; it is a choice made by the right-wing.
The left wants to extend the opportunity of education to everyone, and for that they're called elitist, while the people who insist on gatekeeping education as a privilege for the rich are salt of the earth. It's entirely backwards.
linear cannon@Daojoan there was a time when extensive knowledge of things was something only easily attainable to the elites. that time is now past, yet we still have not shaken ourselves of the patterns we collectively learned to recognize. this benefits the new elites, and so they perpetuate it. i hope we can learn from this soon.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESwe're getting palantir toilets soon so...
CyThat's sure not how I use the term elitist, but yeah. People are so easily swayed by a down home country accent.
What's her name at PhilosophyTube has a pretty interesting angle on what's happening here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqPd6MShV1o
Not entirely people's fault, but definitely working against any hope of our future existence.
What's her name at PhilosophyTube has a pretty interesting angle on what's happening here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqPd6MShV1o
Not entirely people's fault, but definitely working against any hope of our future existence.
Transhumanism: "The World's Most Dangerous Idea" | Philosophy Tube
Flipper 🐬🏳️🌈@Daojoan Friends with a billionaire pedo fixer? Elitist.
Oh, wait, that one still works.
ghost_shit@Daojoan A gold toilet makes it harder for the cleaners to see where you missed your aim.
konstruct-960T-BF64.gguf@Daojoan "elitism" is just a fancy name for gatekeeping and bragging about something behind those gates
Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar@Daojoan Especially young, female people, as it turns out.
Roger H.
STP
Peter Brown@Daojoan like most Scots, Carnegie believed “the people” should have access to reading, education and culture and put his money where his mouth was.
Being poor does not need to mean being ignorant and there are many very wealthy people who are totally ignorant - most of the current US government for example.
Being poor does not need to mean being ignorant and there are many very wealthy people who are totally ignorant - most of the current US government for example.
SmutMagDotArt@Daojoan It's not elitist to go to university. It's elitist to believe the only way you can prove you are smart or educated is to give tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for a piece of paper with your name on it. Our entire labor market and social culture is based on that notion. And like, I think the viewing of Trump as a man of the people is dumb, too...but this post is dangerously close to equating poor with dumb. And I think that's probably what people are referring to.
arceuthobium@theothersimo @Daojoan I don't think it was her intent. But I do think equating going to college with knowing things perpetuates a class divide and permeates the culture with an idea that poor people, or people who can't leave home, or need to work full time are stupid. I went to college. Plenty of idiots who never learned anything or had one moment of critical thinking graduated. And yet it's the way we assess who is worthy of a job that requires thinking. I'm happy to point it out.
@theothersimo @Daojoan Yeah, but going to college is the only thing in the list that gets you more money, and the only thing that costs a year's salary per year to pay for. That's why people think it's elitist, and that's why it's the one I focused on. It's the one you and I might think signifies different things.
Miss Megaphon@smutmag @Daojoan Interesting angle re: money.
Wondering whether the US academic system has sth to do with the view of them being elitist. You need money to become educated.
Here in Germany, college and university are free (though there are class threshholds obv).
We still have a right wing movement against intellectuals (which, btw, I do think is orchestrated by Putin et al.).
It seems to be stronger in the USA though.
Maybe because there *is* a connection between education and privilege?
@megaphon @Daojoan I do want to be clear: The MAGA movement (and republicans in general) here is totally, 100% anti-intellectual. And their hatred of college is part of it. But I'm definitely speaking to why people here might gravitate towards the anti-intellectualism. Their latching onto a true problem--that there is a big class divide that favors people who went to college. And that, yes, it's basically extrotion: Pay 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars, or be poor.
@megaphon @Daojoan From my own experience in college, I found quite a lot of the requirements entirely arbitrary, and found the system to be a scam. I'm the fool that dropped out my senior year--because college was honestly easier than my fairly tough high school, and I couldn't shake the feeling that it was a scam.
But the scam aspect would be eradicated if it were free.
Markus Gerstel@Daojoan Nigel Farage, man of the people, hero of the working class, was a commodities trader back when he was in the Tory party.
Mad Engineering@Daojoan If knowledge is power, most of us on mastodon must be at least demigods.
TomWilsonYEGJust means thinking for yourself using facts instead of following the herd based on emotion …
DeltaWye
bit101
Jesse McClure 
Populism always maintains the "elite" as the enemy. It is also frequently used as a tool of authoritarians. And under authoritarian-populism, those with power and money are never the enemy: those with knowledge and the capability to share it are.
The good news is that they fear what can undo them. We don't need money and power to end this madness: we only need knowledge, and the courage to share it freely.
eswillwalker@Daojoan Is that because everyone is striving to have a gold toilet?
Jennifer Kayla | Theogrin 🦊
Jim
MacCruiskeen@Daojoan There's always been a strong anti-intellectual element in our society, that much is not new. But yeah, lately it seems that knob has been cranked to 11.
JackMex