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FZM wrote:

I had a chance to meet a lot of vintage old Communists a couple of weeks ago, all retired colonels and senior ranks in the Red Army's ideological training branch. I don't know if its these types you were thinking of here, but I find they constitute a kind of living disproof to some of the more superficial New Atheist rhetoric and assumptions.

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DanielCC wrote:

There are two things at work....

2. Politics, politics, politics - the worm which has devoured Man's heart and enslaved his soul. People often display knee-jerk behavioristic reactions to metaphysical questions because of the most contingent parochial Culture WarsTM association.

Speaking of, I ran across this article (http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/02/camo-and-conversions-the-parallels-between-duck-dynasty-and-dante-culture.html) an hour ago by conservative Rod Dreher that looks at conservative anti-intellectualism.  I think there are differences between the smug atheist provincialism and the simple-country-wisdom act that anti-intellectual conservatives put on, but I don't think they are ultimately different animals.  And I think they both have a lot to do with politics and the culture wars.
 

Brian wrote:

Haha   Explain what you mean by that jab at rock concerts.

I was taking rock concerts as a paradigm of the post-'68 culture. I also think a packed rock concert, the audience brought to a fevered pitch, can be a rather terrifying sight.