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After reading this thread and reacting to some posts (all of my posts above), here are my general impressions.
1. My personal experience:
I have been an "intellectual" all my life, sometimes pompous, most of the times nice. I answered questions in class, I had good grades with little work. I generally was pompous with people I didn't like, using complicated words they couldn't understand even when simpler words could have done the trick just as well.
I am a harsh critic of trash TV (there are no tabloids similar to the Sun or Bild in France), as it promotes thoughtlessness, and simply shut people's brain power off. Now, I acknowledge there is a reason as to why people want to shut their brains off when they come back from an exhaustive day at work. Heck, I experienced it myself when I was working: the first thing I wanted to do when coming home from my dumb job was to play Diablo2 to no end: useless to say, I felt falling dumber day by day.
However, I almost never recieved any flak for being intellectual, even though I was depicted as such. I recieved much flak because my (rare) first name was starred on TV in a show called "[First name] is stupid". I recieved some limited flak because I wasn't conform to the group I was hanging with. I don't recall having recieved any flak because I was intellectual, maybe just some defiance during the time I was pompous.
As such, when I criticize the Whaleboys and Enigmas, I'm not "yet another dumbass rugby player". OTOH, I remember very well that my greatest popularity surge in highschool was the moment I outranked the Mrs. know-it-all in physics, despite both her parents being science teachers. By the way, she was the only "intellectual" whom I saw being widely loathed.
As a result, I can safely say that I've never seen intellect as a direct reason for discrimination. Attitude, OTOH, is.
2. And that's why I think Whaleboy's and especially Enigma_nova's attitude explain why they recieved such flak.
In their posts, they seem to believe the use of their brains make them magically able to know the Truth better than the others. That their message is something worth listening, worth acknowledging, and those who don't listen or don't want to listen are just ignorant or stupid people.
They, OTOH, believe they have nothing to learn from the ognorant masses. Agathon too, as he openly says the opinion of ignorant people should not get any respect.
Despite all they can say in this thread to make it look like they don't take themselves as superior, their arrogant mindset shows, as per the snippets I quoted in my previous posts.
These guys have the pompous attitude that make them unpopular, unlike many other "intellectuals" on 'Poly (myself included) who can get along fine with people.
3. Now, after reading Drogue's and PH's posts, I'm willing to believe the problem is different in Britain than merely Whaleboy's attitude problem. The Tabloids, and I guess a general history of elitism, make Britain different to other countries in this regard (this is an impression I also have from the "democracy" threads, where almost all our elitists are British).
It doesn't strike me as impossible that intellectuals may suffer from on-sight discrimination in Britain. This deosn't mean, though, that attitudes contribute nothing to it. I'm sure the amount of flak a British intellectual gets varies widely according to his personality.
1. My personal experience:
I have been an "intellectual" all my life, sometimes pompous, most of the times nice. I answered questions in class, I had good grades with little work. I generally was pompous with people I didn't like, using complicated words they couldn't understand even when simpler words could have done the trick just as well.
I am a harsh critic of trash TV (there are no tabloids similar to the Sun or Bild in France), as it promotes thoughtlessness, and simply shut people's brain power off. Now, I acknowledge there is a reason as to why people want to shut their brains off when they come back from an exhaustive day at work. Heck, I experienced it myself when I was working: the first thing I wanted to do when coming home from my dumb job was to play Diablo2 to no end: useless to say, I felt falling dumber day by day.
However, I almost never recieved any flak for being intellectual, even though I was depicted as such. I recieved much flak because my (rare) first name was starred on TV in a show called "[First name] is stupid". I recieved some limited flak because I wasn't conform to the group I was hanging with. I don't recall having recieved any flak because I was intellectual, maybe just some defiance during the time I was pompous.
As such, when I criticize the Whaleboys and Enigmas, I'm not "yet another dumbass rugby player". OTOH, I remember very well that my greatest popularity surge in highschool was the moment I outranked the Mrs. know-it-all in physics, despite both her parents being science teachers. By the way, she was the only "intellectual" whom I saw being widely loathed.
As a result, I can safely say that I've never seen intellect as a direct reason for discrimination. Attitude, OTOH, is.
2. And that's why I think Whaleboy's and especially Enigma_nova's attitude explain why they recieved such flak.
In their posts, they seem to believe the use of their brains make them magically able to know the Truth better than the others. That their message is something worth listening, worth acknowledging, and those who don't listen or don't want to listen are just ignorant or stupid people.
They, OTOH, believe they have nothing to learn from the ognorant masses. Agathon too, as he openly says the opinion of ignorant people should not get any respect.
Despite all they can say in this thread to make it look like they don't take themselves as superior, their arrogant mindset shows, as per the snippets I quoted in my previous posts.
These guys have the pompous attitude that make them unpopular, unlike many other "intellectuals" on 'Poly (myself included) who can get along fine with people.
3. Now, after reading Drogue's and PH's posts, I'm willing to believe the problem is different in Britain than merely Whaleboy's attitude problem. The Tabloids, and I guess a general history of elitism, make Britain different to other countries in this regard (this is an impression I also have from the "democracy" threads, where almost all our elitists are British).
It doesn't strike me as impossible that intellectuals may suffer from on-sight discrimination in Britain. This deosn't mean, though, that attitudes contribute nothing to it. I'm sure the amount of flak a British intellectual gets varies widely according to his personality.
Please, enlighten me!! 
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