Quote:
Originally Posted by dmaul1114
Especially in rural, conservative states. I grew up in one, and I'm still big fan of my state universities sports teams. But man if you mention reading, or I mention I'm a professor etc. on the off topic boards on such sites, you get shouted down as an elitist snob, and out of touch intellectual, have gay slurs thrown at you and everything else.
It's really disconcerting that it's becoming a bad thing to read, to be an intellectual, to do intellectual work in many segments of society in the US. And you're right, it doesn't give much hope for the future if people have these attitudes and pass them onto their children.
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I'd hate to break it to you but the same exists within liberal blue states. I'm in one and frankly it can be odd to see how things are. Some have blind faith to a given issue or number of issues and frankly don't challenge it. One candidate advertised he is against special interests and yet he owns part of the Boston Celtics! People will openly cite a study without realizing that unless one releases the raw data it can be highly questionable.
Few people read or at least read a significant amount. Sure there's the magazines and newspapers (which are anorexic) but unless someone is in school they probably aren't reading. Just in having a reference book at work would get questioning if I was in school. One women admitted to me outside of school she probably has only read three books in her life! I was taken aback by this.
I remember hearing an argument about US and Asian versions of electronics. Basically it was that in Asia they'll study the manual as if it is religious doctrine while in the USA they want things simplified to the point of no manual.
Making matters worse is even if tv is factored in as a replacement we haven't had significant intellectual debates at least with ratings for awhile. Outside 60 Minutes there's no high ratings news shows (local doesn't count). I'll give a reprieve for Intelligence Squared which is good but it's on Bloomberg rather than say PBS. The other problem with tv is some keep on surfing rather than um..planning. At least if someone has a recorder they can skip the commercials and not have to wait but that's the minority. The concept of instant gratification unfortunately is prevalent today.
Heck McDonalds still states that picture menus are "available upon request"
ever see this waffle house bit?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvs2g5Nj0NI