#intelectualism

[nathandleah]

Why are people not woke anymore?

Can someone please explain how we went from the 2020 “woke” movement to this wave of conservatism in 2025? Because honestly, the shift makes no sense to me. Just five years ago, it felt like we were making meaningful progress. People were becoming more empathetic, open-minded, and unafraid to express their identities. Discrimination was actively called out and condemned.

This shift wasn’t just visible online; you could see the change happening in real life. For example, in my graduating class, around 15 students came out in 2020, and they faced no backlash whatsoever. Acceptance became an expectation rather than a mere encouragement, as discrimination was simply not tolerated. Nowadays, around 10 of those 15 individuals deny that they ever came out, brushing it off as a joke and embracing more conservative ideals—like aspiring to have the “perfect” traditional family. There’s also the noticeable shift in feminist discourse. In 2020, it felt like nearly every young woman identified as a feminist. Now, however, we’re witnessing a tendency in young girls pursuing a "tradwife" future and anti-intellectual trends such as "girl math," where the underlying joke is that women are inherently less intelligent than men.

I genuinely don’t understand how we’ve regressed so drastically. It’s not just the past five years that feel lost—it’s like thirty years of progress have been undone. An ad promoting eugenics shouldn’t even be part of public discourse, let alone broadcasted. People who endorse such ideas shouldn’t even have a career. Don't even get me started on those podcasts where men are proudly sexist and just awful human beings. It´s simply baffling to me how someone can be so open with their hatred and not have any repercussions whatsoever.

What’s most unsettling is how quickly people, especially younger generations, have adapted to this shift. Please help me understand what social phenomenon has caused corrupt and harmful ideas to become normalized once again. They’re so shameless with their hatred, unapologetic about the harm they cause, proudly preaching cruelty without a hint of remorse.

[titleknown]

You know, I think one of the biggest intellectual “gaps” within the “rationals” side of the internet was the belief that A) Subjective = Fake and B) That therefore accomodating or even acknowleging subjectivity was corrosive and dangerous to society as a while.

Looking at that, you can easily see how their “reals not feels” ideology went from debunking fundies to full on anti-social-sciences reactionary fascism within just a few years...

[triapus]

[memoriesofmountain]

In many forums over the past decade, public intellectuals seem unable to talk about pressing social issues without performing the equivalent of an aca...

A very interesting read on intellectualism and academia. 

  "The impact of this development of market-driven knowledge is evident in how many professional intellectuals with an avowed social critical project write and present their work. Although it is important to engage valuable research in presenting matters for the public good, the reality is that some scholars function more like the knowledge equivalent of brand names than ideas. ... For example, the more mystifying knowledge capital becomes, the more linked is the relationship between the author and the product, making them one and the same and, since no one else is identical with the author and the brand, the reference point of the flow of profit becomes restricted. What this means is that the demand for the product becomes the demand for the author who has also become the product and, thus, an affirmation of market forces. ...consumers seeking right-wing, centrist or left-wing intellectual products have an array of public intellectuals and academics offering also their politics as grounds of their marketability. Under the right circumstances, one's politics sells."

[blessed-are-the-cheese-make-blog]

Ok, Im aware that i whine about America a lot on here, but really... When did complete and utter denial (sometimes to the degree of great harm) become public policy number one of the (loud) majority of american people? the forced ignorance of (lets face it) all the republican front runners is downright shocking! since when is it the responsibility of a democratic government to deny such urgent and obvious facts  (global warming, various medical research, ext...) in order to pander to headline grabbing fringe groups and get the media lapdog to focus on them. What happened to American politics? in just over 50 years they have gone from the likes of Eisenhower and Kennedy, to the likes of Romney and Santorum. Even (don't hate me on this) Obama had honestly been pretty disappointing; a good man, but too centrist and diplomatic to get much substantial work done. Ultimately all of american mainstream politics has become little more than a cesspit of incompetence and populism.

Srsly U Guise...

U Guise,

SRSLY.

[brambonius]

I'm always amused at the implication that if I disagree with (or am simply not interested in) something, it's because I haven't read enough.

Ted Troxell