I know it’s super *edgy* to mock people for falling into the anti intellectual cesspool, but come on already.
When a person who works 2 jobs, has kids, and barely graduated high school, and can’t even read at a 10th grade level comes across your precious radical theories, they will not care.
Nobody wants to read something that requires a thesaurus, dictionary, and an open Google tab. I’m glad you could afford that precious postsecondary degree and you can use $5,000 words no matter the topic.
The rest of us don’t function that way. You’re gatekeeping by denying basic information to those who need it most. If your queer theory or feminist theory or race theory aren’t inclusive to the poorest and least formally educated among us, who is it for really? Are you here for the revolution or some weird self congratulatory masturbation session?
Intellectual snobs look at folks without much formal education and judge. You wonder “Why do they follow this con artist? Why do they support this problematic person? Why do they believe such ridiculous ideas?”
Because the snake oil salesman knows his audience and acts like one of the people even if he secretly despises the people. He talks to the people in a way that makes sense, and makes the voiceless feel empowered and heard.
Don’t like it? Do better. You’re not saving or empowering anyone inside your academic ivory tower. Come down from your tower, Rapunzel, and put your work boots on.Being poor or not being able to access formal education doesn’t make us undeserving of safety or a positive future. Liberation is not only for highly educated or the wealthy. High school dropouts matter. College dropouts matter. Kids that never got help they needed in school matter. People who have never heard of Marx matter. People who were never taught the value of critical thinking matter. People who have never read Lorde, hooks, or Davis matter. People who were never taught how to connect patterns, analyze society, or question authority matter.
People are systemically denied access to education, and the tools needed to radically deconstruct and critique. This is an intentional maneuver of the ruling class to end rebellions before they begin. If you have the extra insight and knowledge, share it with those who do not. Being unaware of systemic oppression doesn’t make you exempt from being held down by it.
Hoarding information and making it inaccessible is exactly what those at the top of oppressive structures do. Instead of mocking someone for not understanding what the hell
“social classifications such as gender, race and nationality constituted by a ‘governing logic’ require an epistemological intervention through queer theory”
means, sit down and explain it. When did intellectual critique of queer theory trump street based queer sex workers immediate problems?When does theory about race trump 64,000 missing black women and girls in real life?
When did intense discussions about Marxist feminism become more relevant than 1 in 3 kids not having food at dinner time?
Stop the intellectual masturbation and take your theories to the real world and talk to those who need help more than they need you intellectual superiority and smugness.
Remember, if it’s not accessible to the poor, it is not revolutionary.
So are you a revolutionary or are you something else?
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