The 9th installment of the Wealth, Intellectualism, and Individualism serial. I eventually want to get this wrapped up.
Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8
The rise of intellectualism is also apparent in changing beauty standards and celebrity culture. For example, the permanent stardom of brunettes and ‘ethnic-looking’ women such as Kim Kardashian–who is perceived as ‘introspective’ and ‘authentic’– overtaking blondes such as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, who are perceived as shallow and superficial and whose careers peaked in 2005-2007 (at the same time the stock market and low-IQ housing markets such as in Las Vegas peaked), and are relics of a pre-2008 era.
In addition, the criteria for what constitutes celebrity has changed. Along with esoteric, social media, and STEM celebrities, there is also the rise of socialite/reality celebrities, such as Dan Bilzerian, who are famous for being interesting, entrepreneurial, down-to-earth, intelligent, and introspective, rather than having a specific talent such as singing or acting. People have grown tired and incredulous of scripted narratives –the same narratives that said there were WMDs in Iraq, that getting a college degree in a ‘useless’ subject will guarantee a good-paying job, or that housing prices in Las Vegas and Miami always go up–and as shown by the rise of Trump and reality TV, prefer spontaneity and authenticity instead.
Pertaining to pop culture, even today’s celebrity feuds have an intellectual-bent to them, and are getting much more media attention. It took the OJ pursuit, and then a couple years later, the deaths of two rap superstars in 1997, to get the media involved, but now the latest spats between oversized celebrity personalities have become leading news, mainstays like the weather, as social media has taken over traditional media. Just recently, it was the battle of the wits as Kim, using Snapchat, proved Taylor Swift had lied, and on /r/hiphopheads (and everywhere else) the world watched transfixed as the drama unfolded, snap after snap, as Kim bested her less intelligent opponent. It was the victory of brains and ingenuity (in using Snapchat in such a smart, clever manner), and the triumph of authenticity over shallowness (Taylor Swift), that made the story such a big deal that it was even reported on Vox.com and CNN.
In agreement with the rise of intellectualism, the number of students taking AP courses has surged in recent years:
Also, America is still the number one country in the world in terms of intellectual output such as patents and research papers, which is probably why so many smart, rich foreigners want to send their smart kids here while also buying up expensive real estate in regions such as Palo Alto. In spite of creeping socialism, America, more so than any other country, rewards talent and exceptionalism. People see headlines about Web 2.0 founders and venture capitalists becoming overnight millionaires or billionaires, about scientists making discovering and being showered with fame and adulation, about the stock market making new highs year after year, about home prices in the Bay Area rising–and realize (correctly) that being smart means better career opportunities, more money, and higher social status.
As another example of intellectualism, because millennials [and gen-z too] are well-educated and, thanks to the Flynn Effect, possibly smarter, they are better able to make inferences and comprehend abstract concepts, and this could explain why millennials created and or constitute a majority of gamergate [as an addendum, gamergate is not really the ‘alt right’. They are not culture warriors, nationalists, or HBD-ers. Their primacy concern is entertainment (particularly video and computer games) being diluted by political correctness], the ‘alt right’, ‘HBD’, ‘Nrx’, ‘red pill’, and other esoteric ideologies and movements that don’t fall under the conventional left/right dichotomy. Of course, there are many misinformed and brainwashed millennials, too, like SJWs, but the backlash against SJWs, spearheaded non-SJW millennials, keeps growing. Millennials are very perceptive…they openly acknowledge racial differences and skirt other ‘taboos’…I see it all the time…millennials freely discussing controversial topics on various forums, such as bodybuilding.com (questions such as ‘Why are black people so strong?’ are common), Thought Catalog, Strait Dope, Reddit, and 4chan. Millennials, even those on the left, are more willing to discuss these potentially incendiary topics, whereas older generations tend to default to political safe, environment-based ones (for the ‘left’, it’s not enough government spending, racism, etc. to blame; for the ‘right’, it’s weak families, not enough religion, too much government, etc. to blame for poverty. In either case, no mention of HBD), not HBD-based explanations and solutions for socioeconomic issues.
From We Are Not Doomed:
In a leftist world of political correctness by vapid talking heads and subservient politicians, intellectualism is where the smartest generation finds the truth, whether it’s the universities, on the trading floor, in the free market, on Reddit and 4chan.
As hard as it may be to believe, we are not doomed. Our side is winning, or at least gaining traction. You can see evidence of this in the backlash against the ‘check your privilege’ campaign, the rise of internet libertarianism, the affirmative action backlash in favor of the meritocracy, the majority of people on Reddit and 4chan defending the officers vs. the looters and other scum, and the growing acceptance of HBD, race and IQ realism in mainstream public discourse on various forums. For years,the welfare left has been successful at blocking out the science that disagrees with their anti-biological deterministic views, but the internet has upended the once strong liberal media hegemony. In the example of Ferguson county and any others, sites like Reddit correct the lies and omissions by the liberal media
It’s hard to know if ‘intellectualism culture‘ reflects millennials being biologically smarter than earlier generations, recent social changes, or a combination of both. Perhaps ‘signaling’ and ‘status seeking’ plays a role, too, as well as economic:
… STEM skills are increasingly valued both culturally and economically in our new economy. It’s the tyranny of the bookish, of smart people pulling ahead as everyone else struggles with a perpetually anemic labor market, stagnant home prices, and falling real wages. Math and code are the new ‘scriptures’ of modern society and economy, with mathematicians, philosophers, physicists, and economists the new ‘priesthood’. More and more young people are studying code and symbols, much like Bible readings, as a way to salvation, except not an intangible one, but one measured by higher wages and more respect.