We’re talking about intelligence here, a concept that comes with a lot of baggage, so I agree that it’s good to be precise. Critical thinking skills and good decision-making is definitely part of what I meant when I posted my comment.
In my opinion, your use of the term is in danger of
essentializing intelligence: “This fascist may have a good education and specialized skills, but they are not in and of themselves intelligent.” I think it’s better to think of intelligence as a contingent and situational social effect rather than as an inherent property of a person.
becoming a tautology: “Intelligent people could never support this, therefore I know that all fascists are stupid.” This type of argument just dosn’t hold.
The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that fascism appeals to the uneducated and unintelligent, but it would be a mistake to reduce it to a function of intellect, or an “ideology of the stupid”. There’s plenty of dangerous, sincere fascists who are quite intelligent in all useful meanings of the word.
We’re talking about intelligence here, a concept that comes with a lot of baggage, so I agree that it’s good to be precise. Critical thinking skills and good decision-making is definitely part of what I meant when I posted my comment.
In my opinion, your use of the term is in danger of
The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that fascism appeals to the uneducated and unintelligent, but it would be a mistake to reduce it to a function of intellect, or an “ideology of the stupid”. There’s plenty of dangerous, sincere fascists who are quite intelligent in all useful meanings of the word.