When did the term "common sense" become a synonymous with anti-intellectualism?

[white_wolf]

I can't count how many times I've heard RWers say stuff like "Your problem is you don't have any common sense." or "He's smart, but he has no common sense." Will some please define common sense, and tell me when it took on the meaning of willful ignorance? I'm pretty sure the man who wrote "Common Sense" would not agree with these fools at all, in fact he wrote a book refuting their religious beliefs, the Age of Reason. That's another thing that pisses me off, I really am not a big fan of a lot of the U.S. founders, but damn it Paine is ours!

[Major Nikon]

1. You're talking about people who consider ignorance and stupidity virtuous

As far as the founding fathers go, I simply remind wingnuts that back then conservatives wore red and progressives wore blue.

[Arctic Dave]

2. Whenever someone says that my retort is,

"there is no such thing as Common Sense, only Common Experience".

What one views as the obvious, others may may see as obscure.

[mojowork_n]

3. That's just a red flag they raise to tell you

that they prefer to have someone else do all their
thinking for them.

[DirkGently]

4. "Willful ignorance." Yep. Definitely a calculated conflation. Thinking is so subversive.

:D

[pacalo]

5. Merriam-Webster & dictionary.com, respectively, define common sense as...

-- sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts

-- sound practical judgment that is independent of specialized knowledge, training, or the like; normal native intelligence.

[MilesColtrane]

6. Around 1980

Nixon, despite his hatred and envy of the Kennedys and their Ivy League upbringing, was actually fairly intellectual.

After he was shamed out of office, Ford took over and the Republicans found out that a savvy, independent mind in the Oval Office wasn't necessary or even desirable. Their agenda could be advanced with a barely functioning figurehead as long as they had their lifer worker bees operating in the White House.

This led to the nomination of Reagan, who was really the first modern president to make people feel OK about themselves being stupid and ill informed.

[MADem]

They're the ones without common sense. Don't allow them to "own" the term.

"Common sense" is when you don't vote against your own self-interests. They've a long way to go before they get some, IMO.

[MADem]

I am afraid I inadvertently triple-posted!

Damn glitch!

[pintobean]

8. A little common sense could have prevented that

:evilgrin:
Sorry MADem. Sometimes, I can't help being a smart-ass. Common sense should have prevented me from posting this.

[MADem]

9. I actually think a better computer/internet connection might have prevented it!

My connection seems to have a lot of "noise" associated with the signal!

[MADem]

7. Apologies. nt

[no_hypocrisy]

10. 1952 presidential election of Ike versus Adlai

Adlai Stevenson was called an "egghead" to indicate that his intellectual capacities made him unable to speak to the American people. Ike was more like the country, coming from the Heartland, plainspoken, etc. Less than a decade later, Richard Hofstadter wrote his class "Anti-Intellectualism in America", which I thoroughly recommend to each and every one of you.

http://www.amazon.com/Anti-Intellectualism-American-Life-Richard-Hofstadter/dp/0394703170