Comment by CM30 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by CM30 | Hacker News Reader

Oh no, not another argument about the world is going downhill/being less appreciative of intelligence/whatever because of some TV show. I mean, I'm genuinely surprised it wasn't referring to either The Simpsons or Idiocracy, but the point's always the same.

There was no 'golden age' where nerds were popular and intelligence was always the most valued part of society. People aren't morons because they read about celebrity gossip or buy a ton of stuff or interact on social media. There was always a sizeable portion of the population who didn't care for intellectual parts of life, even back in the days of newspapers and radio broadcasts. Go back even further, and well, you were often deeply unpopular (at best) for having views considered 'dangerous' to society.

At least nowadays, it's easier to get involved in subcultures and groups for things you're interested in rather than being limited by geography. At least a lot of things previously considered 'for geeks' are now mainstream in some way. At least there's now a potential option for an intelligent outsider to make their fortune without having to be born into wealth or popular in a large company.

Anti intellectualism is not new, it's not increasing and it's certainly not bringing the 'downfall' of western civilisation.

I guess nerds are alright, but if your identity is tied to the things you consume, ie books/comics, tv shows, fan fiction etc, then being a nerd is the same as being the anti-intellectuals this article is about.

>There was no 'golden age' where nerds were popular and intelligence was always the most valued part of society.

Definitely not in America, there wasn't.

Other societies are different.

Can you name some of these societies?

Because there was anti intellectualism back in Victorian times, at least in quite a few cultures. And every dictatorship/tyranny tends to have some rather extreme anti intellectual policies (the USSR, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge and Nazi Germany were quite prone to murder them en masse). Religious societies don't tend to deal with this sort of thing well either.

But I'll be interested in knowing what societies were more tolerant towards 'nerds' and intellectuals and outsiders compared to the US, Europe, etc.

I'm also curious to find which societies celebrated intellectualism as a part of general culture. The best I can see it is if the rich elite collect intellectuals as part of a status play.

Japan comes to mind. (Not for outsiders though, I don't know how that's related to "nerds" and intellectuals.)

Also, you're conflating different types of intellectuals. Nerds who are interested in science and engineering frequently aren't all that interested in art, social justice/change, government/politics, etc. Germany under the Nazis certainly had a lot of engineering prowess. They didn't tolerate anyone who wanted to change the government, obviously, but they certainly made use of their scientists and engineers. The Soviets, similarly, were always been pretty strong at math and science (while not tolerating political dissent).

Religious societies never seem to do very well with "nerds", and not too surprisingly, highly religious societies never seem to become strong in science and engineering or even industrialization. When they do, it's coincides with them watering down or neutering the religion, as we see in Western nations now.

Actually makes more sense this way

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