“I’m tired of ignorance held up as inspiration, where vicious anti-intellectualism is considered a positive trait, and where uninformed opinion is displayed as fact.”

—  Philip Plait

"The mainstreaming of crazy" (8 September 2009) http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/09/08/the-mainstreaming-of-evil/
Bad Astronomy blog

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I’m tired of ignorance held up as inspiration, where vicious anti-intellectualism is considered a positive trait, and w…" by Philip Plait?
Philip Plait photo
Philip Plait 8
astronomer, skeptic 1964

Related quotes

Jill Vogel photo
Georgi Dimitrov photo

“Remember Bulgaria, where the leadership of our Party, took up a "neutral," but in fact opportunist, position with regard to the coup d'état of June 9, 1923”

Georgi Dimitrov (1882–1949) Bulgarian politician

Ch. 1, Is the Victory of Fascism Inevitable ? https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/dimitrov/works/1935/08_02.htm#s2.
The Fascist Offensive and the Tasks of the Communist International in the Struggle of the Working Class against Fascism
Context: One might also cite quite a few instances where Communists were taken unawares by the fascist coup. Remember Bulgaria, where the leadership of our Party, took up a "neutral," but in fact opportunist, position with regard to the coup d'état of June 9, 1923...

David Brin photo

“It is the one uniform trait shown by every* vicious, obstinate and troglodytic enemy of the American Experiment.”

David Brin (1950) novelist, short story writer

A rant about stupidity... and the coming civil war... (2009)
Context: Step back for a minute and note an important piece of psychohistory — that every generation of Americans faced adversaries who called us "decadent cowards and pleasure-seeking sybarites (wimps), devoid of any of the virtues of manhood."
Elsewhere, I mark out this pattern, showing how every hostile nation, leader or meme had to invest in this story, for a simple reason. Because Americans were clearly happier, richer, smarter, more successful and far more free than anyone else. Hence, either those darned Yanks must know a better way of living (unthinkable!)... or else they must have traded something for all those surface satisfactions.
Something precious. Like their cojones. Or their souls. A devil's bargain. And hence — (our adversaries told themselves) — those pathetic American will fold up, like pansies, as soon as you give them a good push.
It is the one uniform trait shown by every* vicious, obstinate and troglodytic enemy of the American Experiment. A wish fantasy that convinced Hitler and Stalin and the others that urbanized, comfortable New Yorkers and Californians and all the rest cannot possibly have any guts, not like real men. A delusion shared by the King George, the plantation-owners, the Nazis, Soviets and so on, down to Saddam and Osama bin Laden. A delusion that our ancestors disproved time and again, decisively — though not without a lot of pain.

Mary Roach photo
H.L. Mencken photo

“Science, at bottom, is really anti-intellectual. It always distrusts pure reason, and demands the production of objective fact.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

412
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)

John Eardley Wilmot photo

“A conclusion is the place where you got tired thinking.”

Martin H. Fischer (1879–1962) American university teacher (1879-1962)

As quoted in ‪Encore : A Continuing Anthology‬ (March 1945) edited by Smith Dent, "Fischerisms" p. 309

Bill Maher photo

“There isn’t just one true opinion. I’m a free speech guy. Now, I’m Team Dave Chappelle, but that doesn’t mean I’m anti-trans. We can have two thoughts in our head at the same time.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Source: New Rule: Andrew Yang & John McWhorter on Dave Chappelle and 'Transphobia' (2021)

Steven Wright photo

Related topics