Emmie Writes

Anti-intellectualism makes us stupid. I know, how obvious is that? But when we consider that anti-intellectualism is not just the rejection of things of the intellectual persuasion, and is in fact a much more nuanced tool that can be used en masse, then we begin to understand that just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you aren’t prone to it as well, and why that is on purpose. 

It’s all too easy to point the finger at the algorithms that hand feed us controversy for us to interact with and then promote it further, but this is just one aspect of how anti-intellectualism is perpetuated in online spaces. Anti-intellectualism is political by nature. By obscuring real class criticisms with attacking public facing intellectuals and intellectualism institutions and lending authority to their own, conservative entities bet on the fact that you’re not paying attention and take advantage of it.

In order to dissect anti-intellectualism, a definition must be agreed upon. In researching and reading about anti-intellectualism, one piece stands out in particular. Michael A. Peters in his piece, Anti-intellectualism is a virus, utilizes Rigney’s three forms of anti-intellectualism, and one in particular is most applicable in the way it’s used in an online medium. “…Populist anti-elitism,’ public skepticism first of the patrician class of ‘gentlemen politicians’ and old money……and later public hostility toward progressive politics….” Is the driving interpretation of anti-intellectualism that is the most apparent in social media and online spaces, and is the primary definition that was used in the interpretation of each instance used here. 

Anti-intellectualists need you to think you’re too smart to know better, and there are a lot of ways you are. More so than any other generation, Millennials and Gen-Z are intimately familiar with technology and can easily adapt to new methods and forms of media, but that is where our collective blind spot becomes evident. We forget too fast that we have to take on that extra critical eye when we view content on social media, partially because it doesn’t feel like something is even being advertised to us. A fresh faced, smiling young girl who just looks so happy and delighted to be showing you what she eats in a day stays with you and influences you more than the fact she’s drinking, for example, raw milk. You might think for a moment, huh I didn’t know milk could even be raw, and might ponder what that entails and move on. But you liked the video, maybe liked a comment or two, and now your algorithm is going to show you more from this creator and by extension, more raw milk content. Next thing you know your explore page is filled with raw milk influencers and all of a sudden you’re blaming the FDA for childhood autism and believe homeschooling is the only way to truly teach children without influence from the intellectual elite. The messages that these influencers are hand feeding you are conservative dog whistles that serve as subtle introductions into their ideology, and their anti-expert posturing is what makes it so effective. Their logic goes as follows: Why didn’t you know that raw milk was a thing? Because the government is trying to hide the health benefits from you. If the government is trying to hide how good raw milk is for you, what else could they be hiding? 

“If you think something could be a dog whistle, it’s because it is.”

Emma Collins

The crux of almost every instance of anti-intellectualism you may come across on social media is obfuscation. By contorting truths into a narrative that best serves the original poster or group, that group can take control of an entire subsection of the internet and create an entire movement from just a handful of unified posts. 

No better example of this exists other than in social media’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many creators promoted the warnings given by the CDC and by the scientific community, but others took this as an opportunity of indoctrination. Alt-right groups such as QAnon took advantage of the crisis, furthering their conspiracy theories in online spaces couched in Covid-19 discourse. Valid concerns over the handling of the Covid-19 Pandemic were funneled into hateful and anti-progressive groups that banked on the fact people were scared and manipulated the fact that false information travels faster than true news on social media, using their fear against them to spread anti-expert propaganda that feeds into other extremist ideology. These content creators are implanting the seeds of doubt about experts and offering their own language and experts for those in search for reliable sources for the new world view they’ve essentially been indoctrinated into. 

“While conservative intellectuals present their ideas as straightforward and natural, they hold onto the trappings of erudition—and maintain a specific canon—in their own counter-institutions.”

Simon Brown

The Covid-19 Pandemic was the catalyst these communities needed in order to prime curious followers and onlookers fully into their mindset, doing away with trusted experts, creating an environment of uncertainty, and offering their own explanations to comfort the crisis of faith that they essentially crafted. 

We must safeguard ourselves against anti-intellectualism through grass roots efforts that start in schools. Media literacy is an important skill which is being surgically attacked, and should be where our efforts start. When escapism becomes the reality is when we should start to be concerned about what forms of escapism we are consuming en masse.

Scrolling through Instagram for hours on end doesn’t feel productive because, well, it’s not, but it doesn’t feel bad either. Time slips away from the best of us, but that is precisely what these algorithms want and need from us. They cannot recommend you post after post for you to interact with if you aren’t already liking and engaging with the app. It’s not a moral failing that you fall prey to predatory social media tactics, but it is something we need to be more aware of. Asking questions about what you are viewing but also of yourself are essential to get to the heart of anti-intellectualism and combating it. You aren’t stupid for believing in something you see online, we are too soon to forget the internet is a fairly new technology and we are new to navigating it, but letting the anti-intellectualism you encounter go unchecked is exactly what those who profit from it want you to do.

These things we see are not as innocent as we want to believe they are. If you think something could be a dog whistle, it’s because it is. You are not immune to the anti-intellectual propaganda you see online, but you can be prepared against and pass your knowledge to others.