Conspiring to make and keep people stupid is a conservative top 10 hit. For them the ideal populace is homogenous, fertile, docile, fearful and uneducated.
Anti-intellectual attacks have been the go-to for centuries, they’ve just gotten more modern and efficient. Look into groups like the heritage foundation, prager u, the heartland institute and (most importantly) the people bankrolling them.
Its a long legacy of chipping away at the foundations of democracy and critical thinking. Blaming technology and the free market is buying their propaganda. It’s the same lie they use to frame climate collapse as an unavoidable natural cycle.
I know there are individuals who hate the world and want everybody else to be suffer, or to be dumb and gullible because then they’re easier to con. But IMO the main driver is the basic conservative attitude that everybody should stand on their own two feet - either because in their minds it makes the nation stronger, or they just resent having to pay for anybody else’s anything - even things that benefit other conservatives. Individually motivated group behavior often looks like a conspiracy but it’s not. Most people don’t eat meat to spite vegans, or floss to put dentists out of business. Etc.
Conspiring to make and keep people stupid is a conservative top 10 hit. For them the ideal populace is homogenous, fertile, docile, fearful and uneducated.
Anti-intellectual attacks have been the go-to for centuries, they’ve just gotten more modern and efficient. Look into groups like the heritage foundation, prager u, the heartland institute and (most importantly) the people bankrolling them.
Its a long legacy of chipping away at the foundations of democracy and critical thinking. Blaming technology and the free market is buying their propaganda. It’s the same lie they use to frame climate collapse as an unavoidable natural cycle.
I know there are individuals who hate the world and want everybody else to be suffer, or to be dumb and gullible because then they’re easier to con. But IMO the main driver is the basic conservative attitude that everybody should stand on their own two feet - either because in their minds it makes the nation stronger, or they just resent having to pay for anybody else’s anything - even things that benefit other conservatives. Individually motivated group behavior often looks like a conspiracy but it’s not. Most people don’t eat meat to spite vegans, or floss to put dentists out of business. Etc.