I see the point, but I don’t think intellectual elitism is the same as anti-anti-intellectualism. I think intellectual elitism creates a sense of alienation from science that in fact leads to anti-intellectualism.

That is just the inferiorily informed trying to justify their lack of knowledge by calling the people more knowledgeable than they are in that field "elitism".

In the modern day, They could EASILY educate themselves with the actual current and up to date scientific research, the internet exists.

The fact that they would rather "educate" themselves with populist YouTube bullshit videos that simply validate their incorrect beliefs instead of looking up the actual research papers that are 100% **ALSO available on the internet ** is entirely their fault and no one else's, you can't blame the fact that they won't read the research on "elitism"

I think they're joking about the elitism part. People just need to stop to listen to idiots

The issue is that anti-intellectualists think that the very concept of knowing more than them about any given topic is elitism.

My conspiracy theorist mom would go on and on about how her spending an afternoon googling something put her ideas at a higher level than someone who got a degree studying it, and if I agreed with the person with the degree, then I was an idiot for not following her. She thought that right up until she died trying to treat her cancer with quack therapies.

Regardless of whether we frame it as "I'm better than you because I know more than you," the anti-intellectualists will still be framing it as "I'm better than you because my 'gut feeling' knows more than you." It's a competition to them, not because someone told them they were lesser, but because they already believed they were greater.

They are better than them, at that thing, and if you don't defer, then they have every right to scoff at the stupidity before them.

They want this same elitism. They want to have their own special secret knowledge only they (and a small handful of internet people “in the know”) have access to. This makes them feel special and superior.

Right, but people will call nearly anything elitism these days. The reason schools don't offer accelerated learning programs for students who aren't challenged by the average coursework is because people were calling that type of thing elitist.

Instead, now we put the upper quartile in the same classes as the lower quartile so that nobody receives the particular level and kind of attention that they need, and everyone is held to "average" whether they're predisposed to be above that expectation or below it.

If someone is talented at a sport, people shower them with praise and give them full rides to college. If someone is talented at math or writing, people tell them to be a team player and stop surpassing their peers by so far. Merit-based scholarships are rare nowadays too, so good luck going to a top university just because you excel at your subjects...