Love how "elitist" now just means "has the audacity to know things."

[dp0@mastodon.social]

@mrundkvist @Daojoan What makes you think we couldn't turn away, too? There are many reasons, why we haven't yet: maybe we were not the targeted audience (i.e., too left to be flipped), we were not sufficiently exposed (no Facebook, no Shitter, etc), we were too proficient in the field on which the disinformation was spread, etc.

Disinformation works like a virus: if you don't have the receptors, you're immune. But make no mistake: there may be a virus out there matching your receptors.

[smutmag@mstdn.social]

@Daojoan It's not elitist to go to university. It's elitist to believe the only way you can prove you are smart or educated is to give tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for a piece of paper with your name on it. Our entire labor market and social culture is based on that notion. And like, I think the viewing of Trump as a man of the people is dumb, too...but this post is dangerously close to equating poor with dumb. And I think that's probably what people are referring to.

[mrundkvist@archaeo.social]

@DP0 @Daojoan
So you mean that education doesn't help. This suggests to me that it's a pretty bad idea to let me vote.

[markus@mast.uxp.de]

@Daojoan Nigel Farage, man of the people, hero of the working class, was a commodities trader back when he was in the Tory party.

[madengineering@mastodon.cloud]

@Daojoan If knowledge is power, most of us on mastodon must be at least demigods.

[cthw@mstdn.ca]

@Daojoan

Just means thinking for yourself using facts instead of following the herd based on emotion …

[vonxylofon@witter.cz]

@mrundkvist @DP0 @Daojoan It's the worst idea, except for all the others that have been tried.

[oytis@mastodon.social]

@nicolai Apart from a severeintellectual disability, what can block someone access to certain methods of thinking in year 2026?

[deltawye@tiggi.es]

@Daojoan There was a cartoon of an eagle tearing apart a book with the caption “Reading is for f******”.

I’m somewhat sure it was intended as a dark parody and cultural commentary, but a terrifying number of people I’ve run into actually do feel that way.

[theothersimo@mastodon.social]

@smutmag @Daojoan there’s no way you misread that badly on accident.

[jmcclure@sciences.social]

@Daojoan

Populism always maintains the "elite" as the enemy. It is also frequently used as a tool of authoritarians. And under authoritarian-populism, those with power and money are never the enemy: those with knowledge and the capability to share it are.

The good news is that they fear what can undo them. We don't need money and power to end this madness: we only need knowledge, and the courage to share it freely.

[els@sfba.social]

@Daojoan Is that because everyone is striving to have a gold toilet?

[caymanpilot@mastodon.social]

@Daojoan
Elitist = Epstein Class

[maccruiskeen@social.linux.pizza]

@Daojoan There's always been a strong anti-intellectual element in our society, that much is not new. But yeah, lately it seems that knob has been cranked to 11.

[jackmexa4@mastodon.social]

@Daojoan

Sounds like a Republican trend

[theogrin@chaosfem.tw]

@ELS @Daojoan

I don't know why anyone would want a gold toilet. That thing sounds like a nightmare to sit on. Can you imagine sitting your butt on a chunk of bare metal on a cold morning?

Guess it's a nice perfect symbol of shallow and meaningless wealth though.

[dp0@mastodon.social]

@mrundkvist @Daojoan No, I am just saying that everyone can be fooled. Believing that this is not the case is dangerous.

Of course, education helps building up resilience against disinformation. And, indeed, some people are more resilient to disinformation than others. However, everyone has their soft spot, a weakness or just an area where they're not so proficient. And one should bei aware of that as this also is an expression of a free, open, and resilient mind: know your weakness.

[jonmsterling@mathstodon.xyz]

@Daojoan Agree, but the cultural elite has always been the thing that money could not buy entry into (except after a generation or two)… so I am not sure this is really new.

[smutmag@mstdn.social]

@theothersimo @Daojoan I don't think it was her intent. But I do think equating going to college with knowing things perpetuates a class divide and permeates the culture with an idea that poor people, or people who can't leave home, or need to work full time are stupid. I went to college. Plenty of idiots who never learned anything or had one moment of critical thinking graduated. And yet it's the way we assess who is worthy of a job that requires thinking. I'm happy to point it out.

[pizzademon@mastodon.online]

@Daojoan This was a trope during Obama: the purposeful conflation of elitist with elite. We want elite.