re: #45 Varek Raith

Explain further, please.

Intellectuals spend years lecturing people from their ivory tower, telling them how stupid they are, what they should believe, how they should live, all in accordance with their sheltered, academic, theoretical, comfy existence. Why? Because it’s a hell of a lot easier than getting their hands dirty and finding out how people really live, believe, etc., how the various threads of their lives intertwine.

Then they wonder why those they lecture get pissed off at them.

Perhaps it’s my background, but I have always preferred being persuaded by someone who knows something of the real situation over being told by someone who’s read a lot of books and articles and is well-versed in theory. (Ludicrous example—When I was in college, a popular Theology course, “Marriage and the Family”, was taught by a Jesuit. My view was, “WTF would he know about it?”)

That doesn’t excuse the nativists and anti-intellectuals from being assholes, but it does explain some of their anger, not that they can even articulate it.