Chit-Chat: The Feels

[Annber03]

6 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

This is the same man who more or less killed his own voting base in 2020, when he gave them alternatives to the advice Dr. Faucci was giving. .

Trump: His/the GOP's conspiracy theories and junk medical "advice" wind up causing a lot of his supporters to die in the pandemic. Also goes after mail-in voting, which affects a lot of his supporters in rural areas and winds up making it harder for them to vote.

Also Trump, and his supporters: HOW COULD TRUMP HAVE LOST IN 2020?! 

[bluegirl147]

It is really baffling how after so many fuck ups Trump's supporters still think he is some sort of genius.  Stable genius according to him.  Anything he does that works I assume either he wasn't responsible for it or it was just dumb luck it worked.

 

[tearknee]

Remember, ordinary people on the street hate nerds and intellectuals. The last thing such a person are is an ordinary person on Struggle Street. And thus, bullying and insulting nerds/straight-A students is punching up not down. An intellectual elite is still an elite.

That's why voters are easy prey for populist demagogues like Trump or Orban.

Edited April 24 by tearknee

[Mollywolly555]

On 4/24/2025 at 7:10 AM, tearknee said:

Remember, ordinary people on the street hate nerds and intellectuals. The last thing such a person are is an ordinary person on Struggle Street. And thus, bullying and insulting nerds/straight-A students is punching up not down. An intellectual elite is still an elite.

That's why voters are easy prey for populist demagogues like Trump 

 

Edited April 26 by Mollywolly555

[tearknee]

5 minutes ago, Mollywolly555 said:

Sad, but true. 

My horrible past several decades of life has left me a hard-boiled cynic.

 

[bluegirl147]

25 minutes ago, tearknee said:

Remember, ordinary people on the street hate nerds and intellectuals

That isn't necessarily true.  I'm an ordinary person and I don't hate those people. Now if you say MAGA hates those people I might agree with that.

28 minutes ago, tearknee said:

An intellectual elite is still an elite.

According to who?  We don't know if these people think of themselves as elites. When I hear someone refer to someone as an elite it makes me think they are jealous.

30 minutes ago, tearknee said:

That's why voters are easy prey for populist demagogues like Trump or Orban.

IMO people who fall for the rhetoric these people espouse are less interested in what can be done for them than what will be done to people they don't like. 

[tearknee]

a straight-A student at high school is not an ordinary person and most people do not go to college or university, either. Your class background ("My Mom was a boiler maker!") or that you grew up in Podunk, IA does not change that.

[Affogato]

https://apple.news/AOSpgKc2wSym-rnrk9a6NmA
 

Was This White House Press Release Written by "The Onion"?

The Trump administration marked Earth Day with a publication that read like satire, but instead was a faithful representation of their twisted view of the world.

———

pfaugh
 

 

[bluegirl147]

15 minutes ago, tearknee said:

a straight-A student at high school is not an ordinary person and most people do not go to college or university, either. Your class background ("My Mom was a boiler maker!") or that you grew up in Podunk, IA does not change that.

What do you mean by "ordinary" people? Not college educated? I don't think intelligence level is an indicator of ordinariness or lack thereof.  Class background doesn't make someone ordinary or extraordinary.  What you do with your life.  How you live your life. How you treat other people. All of that determines if you are ordinary or extraordinary. When I say I'm ordinary I mean I am just an average person. But I hope things I have accomplished and my empathy for my fellow man makes me extraordinary to my friends and family. How the rest of society views me I do not care at all.

[Affogato]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet_(1964_film)
 

saw this last night. As the lecture beforehand mentioned the movie spoke to our current situation. Tyrants be tyrants. 
 

Edited April 24 by Affogato

[Ohiopirate02]

1 hour ago, tearknee said:

Remember, ordinary people on the street hate nerds and intellectuals. The last thing such a person are is an ordinary person on Struggle Street. And thus, bullying and insulting nerds/straight-A students is punching up not down. An intellectual elite is still an elite.

That's why voters are easy prey for populist demagogues like Trump or Orban.

If this is true, then Donald Trump would not have been elected twice. College educated people voted for him in 2016, 2020, and 2024 in enough numbers. MAGA has always been funded by the supposed elite you keep on harping about. They were the ones who made Jan 6th happen. It was never a mob of "ordinary" Americans because "ordinary" Americans do not work jobs that allow them to take off multiple days from work to travel to an expensive city and pay for a couple of nights in a hotel room. The giant pickup trucks that drive around with massive MAGA flags on the back of them cost upwards of $75,000. Your ordinary people are not the ones buying them.

[Affogato]

8 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

If this is true, then Donald Trump would not have been elected twice. College educated people voted for him in 2016, 2020, and 2024 in enough numbers. MAGA has always been funded by the supposed elite you keep on harping about. They were the ones who made Jan 6th happen. It was never a mob of "ordinary" Americans because "ordinary" Americans do not work jobs that allow them to take off multiple days from work to travel to an expensive city and pay for a couple of nights in a hotel room. The giant pickup trucks that drive around with massive MAGA flags on the back of them cost upwards of $75,000. Your ordinary people are not the ones buying them.

The giant pickups are often used in blue collar work. Not necessarily arguing completely. But the pickups aren’t a point. 

[Ohiopirate02]

1 minute ago, Affogato said:

The giant pickups are often used in blue collar work. Not necessarily arguing completely. But the pickups aren’t a point. 

A lot of that is because blue collar work pays good money. It also requires education. A lot of people working blue collar jobs fall into the some college category that the pollsters keep. They have associates degrees and some even have bachelors in fields like construction management or in one of the many agriculture degrees land grant colleges still offer.

[Affogato]

3 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

A lot of that is because blue collar work pays good money. It also requires education. A lot of people working blue collar jobs fall into the some college category that the pollsters keep. They have associates degrees and some even have bachelors in fields like construction management or in one of the many agriculture degrees land grant colleges still offer.

Good point, and this group is clerly, for some reson,  big demographic for Trump. 

[bluegirl147]

4 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

A lot of that is because blue collar work pays good money. It also requires education. A lot of people working blue collar jobs fall into the some college category that the pollsters keep. They have associates degrees and some even have bachelors in fields like construction management or in one of the many agriculture degrees land grant colleges still offer.

My boss also owns rental properties and he used to hire a guy who had one of those big expensive trucks.  That guy didn't do the actual work of course. He had subcontractors and they sure weren't driving those big expensive trucks.  My boss eventually decided to cut out the big expensive truck guy and pay the people actually doing the work directly. 

[Affogato]

1 hour ago, tearknee said:

Remember, ordinary people on the street hate nerds and intellectuals. The last thing such a person are is an ordinary person on Struggle Street. And thus, bullying and insulting nerds/straight-A students is punching up not down. An intellectual elite is still an elite.

That's why voters are easy prey for populist demagogues like Trump or Orban.

It really isn’t punching up, it is straight up bullying. Calling a woman who is rich and well educated a bitch and a whore is not a criticism, it is a move to knock her in the mud so you can stomp on her. 

[Ohiopirate02]

1 minute ago, bluegirl147 said:

My boss also owns rental properties and he used to hire a guy who had one of those big expensive trucks.  That guy didn't do the actual work of course. He had subcontractors and they sure weren't driving those big expensive trucks.  My boss eventually decided to cut out the big expensive truck guy and pay the people actually doing the work directly. 

I live in an area where I can see the difference between those who purchased a truck because they need it for work and those who buy one to haul their boat. There is a stark difference between their trucks. The ones who need a truck for work buy the base model and use it until it dies while the pavement princesses buy the top of the line models and then trick them out. Most of the blue collar, non-college educated men I know that work in the trades prefer a van over a truck.

[tearknee]

9 minutes ago, Affogato said:

It really isn’t punching up, it is straight up bullying. Calling a woman who is rich and well educated a bitch and a whore is not a criticism, it is a move to knock her in the mud so you can stomp on her. 

No, i specified *nerds* not a gender.

 

We have a secret ballot and that means people can vote as they think (Brexit, the indigenous voice and such)

See Bradley effect and such.

[bluegirl147]

22 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

The ones who need a truck for work buy the base model and use it until it dies while the pavement princesses buy the top of the line models and then trick them out.

When my husband was a handyman he had a customer that would sometimes hire other people. And if they had their name on their truck she thought they would do a better job so she would pay them more.  She paid one guy up front and guess what?  He never finished the job. I stand by my belief that men who have big tricked out trucks like things big to make up for their own shortcomings.

[Affogato]

25 minutes ago, tearknee said:

No, i specified *nerds* not a gender.

 

We have a secret ballot and that means people can vote as they think (Brexit, the indigenous voice and such)

See Bradley effect and such.

And I offered an example. Same with ‘nerds’, whatever they are exactly. It is insulting someone not in your social group ( with associated hairstyles or recreational tastes or whatever) in order to make them fell lesser so you can hurt them. This is punching down.  The insults generally are irrelevant. Now in some cases you can say a politician puts themselves in harms way, which is true. Some people invite comments about being a cheeto, etc, and need to expect some. This is why we have formal ‘roasts’, too. 
 

seiously, is it punching down to Musk, a terribly insecure and dorky guy, or punching up at the rich asshole? Bit of both? Musk’s picture could go next to ‘nerd’ in the dictionary. 

36 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I live in an area where I can see the difference between those who purchased a truck because they need it for work and those who buy one to haul their boat. There is a stark difference between their trucks. The ones who need a truck for work buy the base model and use it until it dies while the pavement princesses buy the top of the line models and then trick them out. Most of the blue collar, non-college educated men I know that work in the trades prefer a van over a truck.

I live in an area where battered pickups also pull boats. Bit of both. 

Edited April 24 by Affogato

[tearknee]

You cannot punch down at the powerful - which nerds at a school and academics are (relative to the average person in the street).

Many times, I shouted at the tv “they have rolled out <another> professor. There is nothing the public hates more than a professor”. Also “the last person you get to construct a political campaign is a professor”. Etc. Piketty makes a similar summary of UK and US politics. But perhaps we are over thinking this.

First rule of politics? Tell people what they want to hear. Which is exactly what Mundine and Price (and Trump and Johnson) did, very effectively.

 

[Dimity]

1 hour ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

The ones who need a truck for work buy the base model and use it until it dies while the pavement princesses buy the top of the line models and then trick them out.

I used to live in a suburb where pick up trucks were relatively common and were never used as far I could ever tell for any reason other than commuting to the office or picking up groceries at Sobeys.  Show offs who usually also had their engines tricked out to make as much noise as possible.

I live in a town in a rural area now and pick ups here actually are used to pick up stuff.  Sadly many of them are also used to plaster as many nasty anti-Liberal slogans as they can on their back windows and bumpers.  On the plus side you know who to avoid.

[Dimity]

14 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Sadly many of them are also used to plaster as many nasty anti-Liberal slogans as they can on their back windows and bumpers.  On the plus side you know who to avoid.

Quoting myself to add that I never have seen nasty anti-conservative slogans on cars, clothing or houses.  Nasty memes on FB?  Sure.  But, IME anyway, never out in public.  I don't know what this says about Conservatives - or at least those who do not identify as Liberal - but it is not saying something good.

[PRgal]

43 minutes ago, tearknee said:

You cannot punch down at the powerful - which nerds at a school and academics are (relative to the average person in the street).

Many times, I shouted at the tv “they have rolled out <another> professor. There is nothing the public hates more than a professor”. Also “the last person you get to construct a political campaign is a professor”. Etc. Piketty makes a similar summary of UK and US politics. But perhaps we are over thinking this.

First rule of politics? Tell people what they want to hear. Which is exactly what Mundine and Price (and Trump and Johnson) did, very effectively.

 

I’ve been called an “over-privileged brat” by more than one person on social (or something to that extent).  Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.  But it’s definitely offensive to me.  

[tearknee]

Just now, PRgal said:

I’ve been called an “over-privileged brat” by more than one person on social (or something to that extent).  Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.  But it’s definitely offensive to me.  

I consider you (and many others here) a friend. I would never hurt you on purpose. I have a brain injury combined with ASD. I have a very weak filter. Unfortunately, i see things which many do not see or choose not to.

[StatisticalOutlier]

Quote

Your class background ("My Mom was a boiler maker!")

A Purdue grad?

 

[bluegirl147]

56 minutes ago, tearknee said:

You cannot punch down at the powerful - which nerds at a school and academics are (relative to the average person in the street).

Nerds are not powerful at school.  At least none that I have seen.

58 minutes ago, tearknee said:

There is nothing the public hates more than a professor

I don't hate professors. And if someone does I would think they are hating what a professor is teaching.  As we have seen MAGA do.  They all think professors are all liberals indoctrinating college students with their liberal beliefs.

 

 

 

[Dimity]

1 hour ago, tearknee said:

There is nothing the public hates more than a professor

You've made your feelings about those who have chosen an academic life very clear in this thread and I think here you are allowing your own opinion to colour your judgment of who 'the public' hates.   

Canada is by and large a very well educated country and I can assure you that 'the public' here does not hate professors or teachers are anyone else who has managed to achieve a degree in any discipline. 

Arguably, if I can speak for the public at large, we hate show offs and knowitalls who think they're better than we are.  Sadly, right now that probably described most Republicans who agree with the Trumpian viewpoint whether they are academics or not.

Edited April 24 by Dimity

[bluegirl147]

16 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Arguably, if I can speak for the public at large, we hate show offs and knowitalls who think they're better than we are. 

Especially the ones who take pride in not knowing what they don't know. Willful ignorance is nothing to be proud of.

[Dimity]

35 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

Nerds are not powerful at school.  At least none that I have seen.

Absolutely true.  My son was in high school when we lived in the UK and while definitely a nerd in some ways he was also over 6 ft tall and a rugby player.  He spent a lot of his time defending his nerd friends who were not 6 ft tall and rugby players from the bullies.   Anyone who thinks nerds rule the school wasn't a nerd in school. 

[Ohiopirate02]

33 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

Nerds are not powerful at school.  At least none that I have seen.

And the vast majority of academics are not powerful. I'm sure there are some that work at elite institutions like Harvard or Oxford who do have power, but they are the minority and outliers. I'm also sure the academic-townie dynamic also exists outside of fiction, but again those are specific instances and not representative of the whole.

[peacheslatour]

The latest cover of well known liberal rag...The Economist?

 

[tearknee]

7 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

And the vast majority of academics are not powerful. I'm sure there are some that work at elite institutions like Harvard or Oxford who do have power, but they are the minority and outliers. I'm also sure the academic-townie dynamic also exists outside of fiction, but again those are specific instances and not representative of the whole.

Much of the dislike of nerds and reacting badly to being 'lectured to' as we saw with the results of Brexit -- and the 2023 referendum here in my adopted country is that most people don't like being made to feel stupid.

Jealously and resentment, yes. But that isn't helped -- particularly in childhood and youth-centric environments -- by the 'gifted' asking to be treated as ordinary -- IOW, the same as a bloke or broad who thinks that a particle accelerator is a type of hoover.

[Affogato]

5 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

The latest cover of well known liberal rag...The Economist?

 

I have framed an economist cover from long ago, two camels having sex. The caption is “the trouble with mergers”. 

Go Economist. Best covers ever. 

[Anela]

3 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

If this is true, then Donald Trump would not have been elected twice. College educated people voted for him in 2016, 2020, and 2024 in enough numbers. MAGA has always been funded by the supposed elite you keep on harping about. They were the ones who made Jan 6th happen. It was never a mob of "ordinary" Americans because "ordinary" Americans do not work jobs that allow them to take off multiple days from work to travel to an expensive city and pay for a couple of nights in a hotel room. The giant pickup trucks that drive around with massive MAGA flags on the back of them cost upwards of $75,000. Your ordinary people are not the ones buying them.

Seven years ago, a guy in a local FB group praised a guy who was driving a big pick-up, that was flying four huge American flags. Other people were cheering him on, and a few gave his name. He was a young guy. But they made such a big deal over him, because of the flags. Like he's a super-patriot. It's the virtue-signaling they accuse democrats of.

But I quoted you, because Clarence Thomas' wife was helping to bus people into D.C. an "elite". They don't hate "elites". they just hate democrats.

1 hour ago, tearknee said:

You cannot punch down at the powerful - which nerds at a school and academics are (relative to the average person in the street).

Many times, I shouted at the tv “they have rolled out <another> professor. There is nothing the public hates more than a professor”. Also “the last person you get to construct a political campaign is a professor”. Etc. Piketty makes a similar summary of UK and US politics. But perhaps we are over thinking this.

First rule of politics? Tell people what they want to hear. Which is exactly what Mundine and Price (and Trump and Johnson) did, very effectively.

 

Elon said that we would have to suffer, for at least a year. He told people who claimed that they voted MAGA, because of the price of food, and everything else. Now trump has said that it would be too hard to bring the prices down, and they aren't going after him over it.

I've noticed that MAGA will start to worship people they think have influence, if the person supports trump. Like Elon. He is a nerd. He is really rich. He straight out told us that he needs to hire young people from other countries, because Americans don't care enough to work the way they do (and for less money) and for some reason, that was okay. 

[Affogato]

19 minutes ago, tearknee said:

Much of the dislike of nerds and reacting badly to being 'lectured to' as we saw with the results of Brexit -- and the 2023 referendum here in my adopted country is that most people don't like being made to feel stupid.

Jealously and resentment, yes. But that isn't helped -- particularly in childhood and youth-centric environments -- by the 'gifted' asking to be treated as ordinary -- IOW, the same as a bloke or broad who thinks that a particle accelerator is a type of hoover.

I often do not understand your points. But let me take this seriously .
 

 Here, well, I do not like to be lectured, but no one does. I was reading outside and a woman approached me to tell me about the love of god. I moved on. 
 

you are right that many people have objected to the idea tht scientists know what is best, or historians, or others with expertise. But part of this is that an increasing group have used the whip of ‘antiintellectual’ propaganda to influence their beliefs. Then others like RFK jr put a wedge in their minds with false claims sbout, say, vaccines, and hit it with a mallet. 
 

this does not mention that the doctors who support vaccination are to blame for lecturing, and lord know people could absorb real information. 
 

Mostly people are people. Some are gifted. Sure.  If people feel inferior it is mostly their problems, or the problems of an abusive media, like Fox, that tea hes them to feel better by belittling rather than finding another way. As individuals, all people are people, just duited for different jobs. 

Edited April 24 by Affogato

[PRgal]

19 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

And the vast majority of academics are not powerful. I'm sure there are some that work at elite institutions like Harvard or Oxford who do have power, but they are the minority and outliers. I'm also sure the academic-townie dynamic also exists outside of fiction, but again those are specific instances and not representative of the whole.

This.  You have to have tenure to have ANY power.  And that's difficult to get.  I also feel that everyone has power in some things but not others.  Males, for example.  Patriarchal cultures dictate (is that the correct term?) that boys/men shouldn't be too emotional.  Boys "learn" early on that they aren't supposed supposed to show their feelings.  Some believe that this can lead to toxic masculinity - they're powerless because society tells them they cannot show emotion.   

 

56 minutes ago, Dimity said:

You've made your feelings about those who have chosen an academic life very clear in this thread and I think here you are allowing your own opinion to colour your judgment of who 'the public' hates.   

Canada is by and large a very well educated country and I can assure you that 'the public' here does not hate professors or teachers are anyone else who has managed to achieve a degree in any discipline. 

Arguably, if I can speak for the public at large, we hate show offs and knowitalls who think they're better than we are.  Sadly, right now that probably described most Republicans who agree with the Trumpian viewpoint whether they are academics or not.

Exactly.  Well, the only people I know who hate profs are their own students, and that's only if the prof is awful/grades harshly.

[Affogato]

Maybe remember that 47 is a college educated entitled rich boy who is hella condescending. 

Edited April 24 by Affogato

[bluegirl147]

44 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

The latest cover of well known liberal rag...The Economist?

 

Before he is gone all media outlets are going to be called liberal mags by Trump and his supporters because he will have caused so much damage even Fox News won't be able to ignore it.

[peacheslatour]

5 minutes ago, Anela said:

He's mad at just about everyone, but his supporters don't expect him to get over his anger and hatred. He's the only one who is justified in feeling what he's feeling, apparently. 

I know. Not a day, nay and hour goes by where I don't see a headline starting with "Trump rages about..." fill in the blank. It's like Mad Libs for psychopaths.

[Ohiopirate02]

22 minutes ago, Affogato said:

Maybe remember that 47 is a college educated entitled rich boy who is hella condescending. 

Not only college educated, but he went to an Ivy League institution. So many Republican leaders went to the Ivies. They've been elitist for decades until the Democrats had the audacity to run a Black man as their candidate.

[fastiller]

55 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

 It's like Mad Libs for psychopaths.

This is a great name for either a band, or an album.  Or maybe just a new game, a la Cards Against Humanity.

[ProudMary]

2 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

Especially the ones who take pride in not knowing what they don't know. Willful ignorance is nothing to be proud of.

I've long said that the only truly stupid people are those who think they already know everything. The guy in the White House is their poster child.

1 hour ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Not only college educated, but he went to an Ivy League institution. So many Republican leaders went to the Ivies. They've been elitist for decades until the Democrats had the audacity to run a Black man as their candidate.

A Black man who was President of Harvard Law Review! 😄

[bluegirl147]

35 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

 

A Black man who was President of Harvard Law Review! 😄

Then all of a sudden Republicans were like we hate the Ivy League.

Jealous much?

[Dimity]

2 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

It sucks!!!”

Well there's that Ivy League education shining through.  I wonder if this will end up in a book of famous quotes by American presidents one day.

[ProudMary]

Some good news in the American Federation of Teachers vs US Dept. Of Education lawsuit.

2 federal judges block Trump's effort to ban DEI from K-12 education

https://abcnews.go.com/US/judge-partially-blocks-trumps-effort-ban-dei-12/story?id=121131844

A second federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from withholding federal funds from schools that participate in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Hours after a New Hampshire judge issued a similar order on Thursday, a federal judge in Maryland appointed by Trump issued a broader ruling that prohibits the Department of Education from using federal funding to end DEI initiatives within public schools.

"This Court takes no view as to whether the policies at issue here are good or bad, prudent or foolish, fair or unfair," wrote U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher of Maryland. "But this Court is constitutionally required to closely scrutinize whether the government went about creating and implementing them in the manner the law requires. The government did not."

Judge Gallagher wrote that the group that brought the lawsuit -- the American Federation of Teachers, American Sociological Association and a public school in Oregon -- successfully proved they would be irreparably harmed and the Education Department letter at issue likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

 

[peacheslatour]

From The Latin Times, 3/24/25

 

 Internet users weren't sure whether to laugh or cry after the president's Trump Store, run by the Trump Organization, unveiled 2028 campaign hats on Thursday.

President Donald Trump has made multiple comments about running for a third term. Last month, he told reporters on Air Force One he was not joking.

[Ceindreadh]

7 hours ago, tearknee said:

You cannot punch down at the powerful - which nerds at a school and academics are (relative to the average person in the street).

Many times, I shouted at the tv “they have rolled out <another> professor. There is nothing the public hates more than a professor”. Also “the last person you get to construct a political campaign is a professor”. Etc. Piketty makes a similar summary of UK and US politics. But perhaps we are over thinking this.

First rule of politics? Tell people what they want to hear. Which is exactly what Mundine and Price (and Trump and Johnson) did, very effectively.

 

Ah yes, there's nothing the public hates more than to see somebody who has worked hard to become an expert in their field, being trotted out to explain something in their field. 

This would probably be the same public who would choose to believe a ranting you-tuber over a trained expert. 

When did a good education become something to be ashamed of?  Why do so many people feel that it's a badge of honour to be deliberately ignorant?

[Annber03]

9 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

That isn't necessarily true.  I'm an ordinary person and I don't hate those people. Now if you say MAGA hates those people I might agree with that.

Same. I'm not even remotely close to being part of the college/academic elite and I have much respect for the nerds and intellectuals out there. I like people who actually know their shit and know what they're on about, and who are very passionate about whatever topics they get all nerdy about. 

Are there people who come off as arrogant know-it-alls? Absolutely. But their intellect isn't the issue there, it's their personality. And then there's people who think and act like they know more than they actually do, but that's a whole other issue altogether. I would say Musk and Trump absolutely fall into that last group.

I personally do not like looking or appearing stupid or ignorant in front of people, so I think that's one reason I value intelligence, both in my life and in those I surround myself with. I certainly don't claim to be any sort of genius or anything like that, but if I have the opportunity to learn something new, I will. And if it's a topic or issue that I either personally have no interest in, or just do not feel like I could gain the kind of expertise on it the way others have, then I will shut up, sit back, and let the people who do know what they're talking about take the floor. I honestly don't know how some people are so happy to go through life being proud of their ignorance and flaunting it all over the place. I can and do absolutely sympathize with people who are ignorant about certain things because they did not have the means or opportunity to learn about such issues - that, obviously, is not their fault. 

But people who have the ability to learn and just...flat out refuse to do so, and bask in their ignorance besdies, even when the facts are clearly staring them in the face and saying otherwise? That I just do not get. 

Edited April 24 by Annber03

[Lugal]

6 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

Nerds are not powerful at school.  At least none that I have seen.

Quite the opposite, really, in my experience.

5 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

And the vast majority of academics are not powerful. I'm sure there are some that work at elite institutions like Harvard or Oxford who do have power, but they are the minority and outliers. I'm also sure the academic-townie dynamic also exists outside of fiction, but again those are specific instances and not representative of the whole.

Academia is somewhat insular.  There are a few who are able to communicate to the public better than others, like Neil DeGrasse Tyson for example.

Now people hate elites but for specific reasons, either elites take the good jobs (the high paying ones that require little physical labor) or the elites screw them over (think bankers and lawyers who use their specialized knowledge to the disadvantage of a working class person) or the elites look down on their experience, (farriers may not have vet training, but they still know a lot about horses).