I know what you mean, but I'm "educated" too, to an odd extreme, and lived in an academic environment. The people I'm thinking about were, and are, generally active, hard-working, bachelor-degree level IT and managerial types brilliant enough to put me to shame in almost any practical assignment. They are quite capable of critical thinking, and showed themselves so at the very beginning.
I think what has gone on is that intelligent people tend to move into management, as the capable, responsible workers they are, and managerial people plug into the hierarchy in which their jobs are embedded. They may not have much choice, as they can't manage without the backing of higher authorities. Whatever screaming nonsense comes down the pipelines, they have to accept it, internalize it, and pass it down to the people under them if they want to retain their positions. That makes them uniquely self-brainwashable, in a way that those of us who can just grumble and do our jobs are not.
Maybe the people you mention are not really intelligent, but just "educated".
I am sorry but I just don't see what definition of "intelligent" could include people that fell for it.
I know what you mean, but I'm "educated" too, to an odd extreme, and lived in an academic environment. The people I'm thinking about were, and are, generally active, hard-working, bachelor-degree level IT and managerial types brilliant enough to put me to shame in almost any practical assignment. They are quite capable of critical thinking, and showed themselves so at the very beginning.
I think what has gone on is that intelligent people tend to move into management, as the capable, responsible workers they are, and managerial people plug into the hierarchy in which their jobs are embedded. They may not have much choice, as they can't manage without the backing of higher authorities. Whatever screaming nonsense comes down the pipelines, they have to accept it, internalize it, and pass it down to the people under them if they want to retain their positions. That makes them uniquely self-brainwashable, in a way that those of us who can just grumble and do our jobs are not.