I have a feeling that TV/media really did play a huge role in the decline of intellectualism in the western world. The USA loves its TV, hollywood and celebrities. It's been reinforced throughout the culture and it makes a lot of people very very wealthy. The more time you spend watching tv the more money they make. Though here's the crux for them, educated people think more and do more so they don't make good customers. So fill the TV with anti intellectualism. Then toss it the political usefulness of a mindless medium and you have a dangerous conduit so to speak.
A friend grew up in a household where his mother forbade TV and video games. During this covid-19 lockdown, instead of mindlessly watching TV like everyone else appears to be doing, he built a deck and is rebuilding his garage among other projects. Every other friend I talk to is sitting around drunk, high or watching TV. Few do some projects but it's mostly TV show chatter in the chat apps.
Personally I don't hate TV and I have netflix. Though I only really watch it in spates and when it is on, I am on my laptop or doodling in my notebooks. It's more for background noise than content. Though of course there are some times when I'm tired and just want to sit and watch an episode of a show.
Politics played a bigger role. Simply put they had to aim for lowest common denominator when setting standards else claims of discrimination would pile on.
Many school systems went so far as to either modify grading systems to prevent embarrassment or celebration of achievement. Schools types which attempt to provide a more specialized learn curriculum are regularly demonized for one reason or another.
If you want the best education then the word fairness needs to be applied properly. Fairness is insuring all students are offered the opportunity to learn and receive an education while accepting there are many who can learn more and should be offered the opportunity to do so even if that includes elevating them among their peers.
Educational achievement should be held in higher esteem that sports yet for some odd reason we do not consider fairness is sports an issue where some kids cannot compete because of ability yet in learning we do.
Schooling has indeed been dumbed down but that as happened in the more recent decades. TV/media manipulation has been at work slowly getting our intellectual capacity for decades, since WW2. I even will go as far as to say it was a direct result of WW2. Cant have kids growing up to be commies. Best have little Susie and Joey sit and watch wholesome american tv reinforcing traditional american values of imperialism, idealism, consumerism and obedience to authority.
Even if media is to blame for helping fueling anti-intellectual sentiments in the US, it's more likely an unintended byproduct than a massive conspiracy by media companies to purposely dumb down their consumers to buy more of their product.
A friend grew up in a household where his mother forbade TV and video games. During this covid-19 lockdown, instead of mindlessly watching TV like everyone else appears to be doing, he built a deck and is rebuilding his garage among other projects. Every other friend I talk to is sitting around drunk, high or watching TV. Few do some projects but it's mostly TV show chatter in the chat apps.
Personally I don't hate TV and I have netflix. Though I only really watch it in spates and when it is on, I am on my laptop or doodling in my notebooks. It's more for background noise than content. Though of course there are some times when I'm tired and just want to sit and watch an episode of a show.