Anti-intellectualism stems from poor education. It’s really that simple. People who aren’t taught critical thinking skills aren’t able to criticize what they digest properly, and so they become susceptible to propaganda and misinformation. They form their views on limited understanding and what emotionally sounds good to them. They lack the skills to verify information, understand the importance of being principled, or question why they’re against intellectualism. Doing these things may sound obvious to many, but these are surprisingly hard skills for a lot of people to understand and apply consistently.

This is the reason why we have so many extremists, why so many people falling for obvious propaganda, why so many people being hypocrites and lacking the awareness as to why that is bad, why so many people who can’t take criticism, why so many people not knowing how to take in new information, why so many people who can’t understand simple concepts, and why so many people who think they’re smart and everybody else is dumb.

The lack of critical thinking skills takes years to erode and years to build. It is very hard to set ourselves back on the right track without making strong, fundamental changes to the education system. The current drought of these skills is affecting everybody all across the political spectrum. It is true whether the anti-intellectuals are left wing, right wing, or chicken wing. It might even affect you, the reader, without realizing it. If we want the future generations to have it better, then we need to have as many people as possible push for comprehensive reforms to the education system.