As a non-American, and so 'judging' America only through the media, it does feel like the complete opposite. Deep ingrained anti-intellectualism, idolization of stupidity and love of the brazen and the rich. Scary decline of the sciences and rapid expansion of superstitions. Of course this does not apply to this here readership, but at least from an outside perspective we see 'idiocracy' surging onto the stage at breakneck speed.
Please don't post generalized putdowns of other people's countries here. They're too generic to be substantive discussion and too provocative to do anything but start conflicts. (I realize you didn't mean it that way, but that's what experience has taught us.)
Your assessments are not consistent with facts. You imply that the media is a distorting lens, but then you go on to espouse views that come entirely from the media. I'm not sure I understand that.
The US is becoming less religious, and it is the least religious it has ever been. People aren't increasingly idolizing stupidity or loving the rich, or Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders wouldn't have done as well as they did (both used anti-elite messaging). In fact, the on-going presidential election is proof that the rich are falling from grace. Occupy Wall Street, anti-"1%" sentiment, and a Democratic Socialist almost becoming the President are all indications that neoliberalism is dying in the US.
Yes, i accept that the media is a distorting lens, that is why I specifically put this in as a disclaimer, but not living there it is the only lens I have available. I'll give you Sanders as a point in showing at least an attempt at curbing extreme neo-liberalism, but Trump seems (to me) like the front runner in the race to 'idiocracy'.
I don't think the GP meant to say that Trump isn't smart. It's that the policies he suggests are meant to appeal to feelings, not rationality. They are thus more likely to attract voters who don't think through what those policies could mean, were they to be implemented. (Not saying those are all of his voters, there are other motivations as well. Also not from the US.)
I think Trump supporters would say that there are simple truth about the universe that faux sophisticated liberals don't grasp or weight equally with less important things.
I believe that orthodoxies of the past half century have been a failure. If average wealth has not risen for decades, a fact, then there is something wrong with your model. Notice the slogan is not Make America Great. It is Make America Great Again.
That admission of failure is fascinating and completely ignored.
I don't see how your link to an article written by a writer who was censured for advocating riots against Trump is evidence that he is a smart person. Can you explain in any more detail?
Lots of terrible people are still very smart. He could incite riots at the same time as thinking Trump is smart.
I'd argue that, to capture the attention of hundreds of millions of people around the world using so little money, someone would have to be pretty smart.
The US may be becoming less religious but there's a clear and growing trend of anti-intellectualism. Look at the anti-vaccine movement as an example. It has managed to convince many people that vaccines are risky, which is directly contrary to all scientific evidence.
Anti-vaxxers believe that they are intellectuals. They think that they are the only ones who can resist the propaganda of Big Pharma and see the underlying science.
You can't define "anti-intellectualism" as "people who disagree with me" (even if you're right).
My sentence wasn't very clear. When I was talking about Trump and Sanders, I was referring only to the idolization of the rich. Both Trump and Sanders spoke out against the wealthy elite controlling politics. Trump even rejected partisan campaign financing until recently.
One of the biggest culture shocks I had when I first moved to the US was the near constant push of consumerism and celebration of consumption. I had never seen or experienced this before at such high levels and even 15 years or so later, I still cannot come to grips with it (although I am a bit more desensitized to it). It permeates every aspect of American life and is quite difficult to escape. Perhaps this is a bad cliche, but the average American's status here is very much defined by his or her ability to consume. Americans may sneer more at the 1%, but idolization of being rich has never decelerated.
The article is - sadly - a lie. There's an idealisation of productivity, which has somehow become correlated with IQ. (Even though in practice the relationship between IQ and productivity is subtle and context-dependent.)
Most of US culture has absolutely zero interest in clever people unless they're also making money and/or running a business. There is no situation where IQ and abstract intellectual output are valued purely for their own sake and not for their financial productivity - not even academia.
Which means the real problem is the way that "business" has become the de facto state religion - in the sense of being the ultimate moral arbiter of personal value and the one true absolute definition of how "good" people are recognised.
Hard work and money. Or money at least.
Trump's success is based on a weird identification - the belief that Trump represents the interests of the 99% because he's a non-intellectual plain speaker who says what he means and means what he says using language that everyone can understand.
That makes him "one of us" to many people, even though of course he's nothing of the sort.
> People aren't increasingly idolizing stupidity or loving the rich, or Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders wouldn't have done as well as they did (both used anti-elite messaging).
O_o
Trump's constant refrain is "I'm so good at business. I have so much money". And Occupy Wall Street and the anti-1%'ers have changed what fundamental aspects of US society, exactly? Sanders is something less mainstream, but he was always trailing the 'business-as-usual' candidate.
Also, speaking from an outsider's perspective, it seems to me that the US was less religious just before the 9/11 attacks than it is now.
Canadians and Europeans love to look down on Americans, we already know this. Thats all your comment adds is an example of that. People and movements (including the Trump supporter movement which you are alluding to) are very complex. And frankly you just don't understand.
Well, it would be helpful if you could explain rather than just complain.
The Trump phenomenon is baffling to many of us outside of the US. I can obviously grasp some of the key reasons – anti-establishment feeling, for example – but equally I'm confused by other aspects.
Average living standards are falling despite the general impression given by politicians and journalists. This is also true in Europe.
The West isn't doing as well as advertised and this traces back to the early 70s. Attrition has been going on for decades.
If you find this incomprehensible then you've got to understand if you are in SV or a major city that you're in the Core of the system, it is the Peripheral that first runs into difficulties when a down cycle appears.
Take countries such as Venezuela, South Africa. These are places on the edge of our economic system and they are blowing up. It is easy to ignore this because they were always, from our perspective, borked. In fact they used to be doing much better in the past.
The key point to grok is that many of our 'stats' about the world are incorrect. Interest rates are not really at zero percent. The economic system is fracturing and traditional models/tools don't work anymore. This is what it looks like when a complex system is in danger of falling to pieces. Larry Summers is borrowing from the same technological stagnation playbook as Peter Thiel. Oil prices halve without meaningful changes in economic growth. Hmmmm. Maybe something is up.
I'm sorry if that is what you get from this. Believe me, we have more than enough of our own Trumps over here too and there is absolutely no distinction between our own neo-liberal heists and yours.
