In my search for answers I came across two articles:
The first one was by "The Dumbing of America," by Sean Jacoby, who argued as to the cause of Anti-Intellectualism and anti-rationalism, of that of the ever growing digital media. Her first part of her argument is that the decline in reading written information or literature is due to a subsequent rise of digital media. This leads into her second part of her argument, people have become impatient when acquiring new information. "The shrinking public attention span fostered by video is closely tied to the second anti-intellectualism part of American culture, the erosion of general knowledge" (Jacoby). Which ultimately ties into his third part that since Americans cannot be bothered to read the information, they "smugly conclude that they do not need to know such things in the first place" (Jacoby).
Jacoby makes a solid argument here because her finds are very fleshed out. But an assumption she makes is that the rise of digital media is solely responsible for the rise of anti-intellectualism. She talks about Modern anti-intellectualism, but never delves into anti-intellectualism before the digital media.
The second article, "Anti-Intellectualism is taking over the US," by Patricia Williams’, goes more in depth about how people dismiss general knowledge. She writes about incidents where school board members will cut entire curriculums, or fire teachers, without even knowing what the material was. Her argument can be inferred that the spread of book banning's and firing of teachers for culture studies, is a cycle that continues to loop itself, spreading more and more.
The second article, "Anti-Intellectualism is taking over the US," by Patricia Williams’, goes more in depth about how people dismiss general knowledge. She writes about incidents where school board members will cut entire curriculums, or fire teachers, without even knowing what the material was. Her argument can be inferred that the spread of book banning's and firing of teachers for culture studies, is a cycle that continues to loop itself, spreading more and more.
Williams’s article isn't so much an argument, as more of an informative piece about the spreading of Anti-intellectualism in schools. However, she does weigh in her opinion, and throughout the article, and it’s clear what her point of view on the situation is. Her article does support what Jacoby said, that Americans are generally out-right ignoring crucial information. While she doesn't fully explain how these incidents affect the nation as a whole, the article still tells a grim effect of anti-intellectualism within the education system.
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