Another conservative slamming intellectuals...

[Archae]

Are we headed for "Idiotocracy?"
With guys like this, sure looks like it.

Jesse Lee Peterson: Intellectuals Are 'Absolute Nutcases'

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 9/23/2016 1:32 pm

Right-wing activist Jesse Lee Peterson recently delivered a sermon in which he warned his congregation not to become intellectuals because intellectualism is responsible for foisting things like gay marriage upon America.

"I notice that the people who are really into the intellect are nutcases," Peterson said. "Absolute nutcases. Because of this intellectual thing taking over and the people rule us, we now have so-called same-sex marriage. That wouldn't happen if we weren't into the intellect. Common sense would dictate that is not going to happen and common sense wouldn't care what you thought about it because we would know that that's wrong."

Intellectuals are also responsible for the fact that "we now have drag queens running around in the military," Peterson added.

"Can you imagine jumping down in a foxhole, running from bin Laden, and there is a man in there with a dress and lipstick on? It would shock you. You would rather be out with bin Laden," Peterson stated, apparently so dedicated to being anti-intellectual that he's totally unaware that Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011.

People simply need to rely "on the intellect of God," he recommended, because human intellect is a tool of the devil, which is why "all intellectual people are insecure people ... because their father is weak, their father Satan is a deceiver."

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/jesse-lee-peterson-intellectuals-are-absolute-nutcases

[maveric56]

1. What a fucking idiot!

He's for real and people actually eat that shit up.

[Dawson Leery]

2. The middle eastern Gods are not intellectual.

They are the embodiment of evil.

[Rex]

3. How does one get 'into the intellect'? Common sense now cares and has emotions?

Well someone is insecure, dunno if I would call it the people 'into the intellect'.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Anti-intellectualism has been a thing in this country

since the 19th century. I remember reading a book about it in college in the '60s: "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life" by Richard Hofstadter. His point was that education is viewed as an unfair privilege and undeserved power. Intellectuals are viewed as arrogant and snobbish, and geniuses are seen as useless and downright nuts. Anti-intellectuals believe that the common sense of the ordinary, uneducated person is superior to formal education, which is subversive and possibly un-Godly. None of what this dingbat is saying is new. The right wing has hated "eggheads" since forever.

[Archae]

5. Yup, Isaac Asimov wrote an essay on this, 60 years ago.

"The Cult Of Ignorance."

[bluesbassman]

6. All things considered, I think I'll stick with intellect.

Especially if this guy is an example of the alternative.

[WestCoastLib]

7. It's really not a new thing

Religious leaders have been actively and fervently attempting to keep their believers uneducated for as long as organized religion has existed. It's a big part of the point of religion. You shouldn't learn anything outside of what the religion teaches you. It's how they've exhibited control over their populations for centuries. Education outside of the church (or similar religious entity) has always resulted in followers becoming unbelievers, so they've fought to prevent that.

It's no coincidence that the anti-intellectualism on the right-wing side began growing as right-wing politics and religion became intertwined.

[Warpy]

8. People who can do critical thinking scare the hell out of

symbol driven conservatives who consistently try to put 2 and 2 together and can't get anything out of it but a ridiculously overstated slippery slope ending with the end of the universe.

[annabanana]

9. God fought so hard at the beginning to keep us from having brains...