Crucifying Fauci: Science, Expertise, and American Anti-Intellectualism

Why we picked it

In 1980, Isaac Asimov observed that "there is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been." He argued that America has long harbored a strain of anti-intellectualism, sustained by the belief that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." Those who devote their lives to scholarship or science are often dismissed not as experts but as "elitists"—people presumed to be arrogant, detached, or somehow threatening to ordinary citizens. More than forty years later, the COVID pandemic seemed to expose that tension in dramatic fashion. For some, Dr. Anthony Fauci became the embodiment of scientific expertise under political attack; for others, he represented government overreach and elite arrogance. A recent Facebook post observed, “When I moved to Florida, I realized there are millions of people who have been stewing in rage for years over the lockdowns. It made me understand that the core animating force in US society is selfishness. The whole rightwing freedom