Dear WSJ: Anti-Intellectualism on the Left and Right
Editor, The Wall Street Journal
To the Editor:
Douglas Ayer correctly notes that "Populist anti-intellectualism has always played a part in conservative politics" (Letters, Nov. 15). But contrary to the left's self-congratulatory myth, anti-intellectualism has always played a part also in so-called "liberal" politics.
What reflects thought more shallow than leftist notions such as making poor people richer by giving them money taken from richer people? Or making workers better off simply by declaring low wages illegal? Or the fantasy that politics can be cleansed of special interests? The only difference between the modern left and the modern right is that the former couch their absurdities in garb that appears intellectual to persons unwilling or unable to think, while the latter wear their stupidity openly.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Don Boudreaux is the Chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University and a Business & Media Institute adviser.
