I feel like anti-intelectualism has won. People can be given free audiobooks, the physical book, etc but they refuse to read because they view reading theory as bad or some bullshit. I have a friend and she thinks “its posh” to read theory. It seems like everyone has fallen for the propaganda that the only people who read theory are rich white college students. It fucking pisses me off.

  • Sanctus@anarchist.nexusEnglish
    9·
    1 month ago

    Print that shit at a 3rd grade level and pass it out when the starvation starts. More will read it then.

  • Ziggurat@jlai.lu
    8·
    1 month ago

    This is why free university and social sciences are important too. It’s great to have electric car and supra conducting magnet, but we also need people to think about classism, history, sexism and all the rest

  • wervenyt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    5·
    1 month ago

    If you mean critical theory (which is mostly what I see people blankly call theory), never. It’s a branch of philosophy that is specifically attempting to remedy institutional and even more fundamental problems with our ways of knowing. Hell, most people who read it already are barely qualified to situate the critiques in context. Critical theory is for people who have already become familiar with math, philosophy, a coherent degree of history, great works of art, are up-to-date in the sciences, and interested in correcting the kind of errors in thinking that lead to corrupt governance, economic failure, war, and genocide.

    It isn’t ‘posh’ to read theory, but it’s not a democratic mission, either. It’s scholastic and primarily academic. If we want to put it to use, we have to recycle the ideas into popular forms of art, translate them into common parlance and make consistent efforts to spread those values, and live in ways that make plain the truth those works make methodical cases for.

    You’re not wrong, though. Antiintellectualism is in ascendancy, and it’s more acceptable than ever to say “thinking just is not my cup of tea”. It’s just that reading Adorno or Butler is a bad indicator.

  • Nemo's public admirer@lemmy.sdf.org
    2·
    1 month ago

    Bite-sized stuff?

    I see cool quotes or memes that are also linked to recent/contemporary things and it gets my interest to look more into it

    I have a friend and she thinks “its posh” to read theory.

    Well, maybe recommending things that would be directly useful for her or things that she likes would be good?
    And tell that it’ll also be useful to counter fake narratives and provide clarity in talking about it to others?