Intelligent People Overly Flawed
3 Tropes
3 Movies
Table Of ContentsMain Description
It's weird but true. Hollywood often depicts intelligent and highly educated people -- especially highly intelligent -- with flaws where they do not do the same for people of average intelligence or "street smarts." Conservatives benefit from this because as a propaganda tactic, they criticize intelligent people including scientists and professors and pander to those without college education. This is a relatively new phenomenon where under Trump, people without college degrees swung heavily to Republicans and those with degrees favor Democrats.
Conservative Trope Examples
- "The Warlock" (Kevin Smith) is depicted as a stereotypical overly paranoid, eccentric, condescending and maladjusted hacker still living in his mother's basement (which he calls his command center) with Stars Wars paraphernalia everywhere. He's distrustful of police officers presumably because he does hacking type things that may be considered illegal.Staff AsideThis is a common anti-intellectual trope where intelligent people are depicted with flaws such as being eccentric and also condescending to average non tech people like John McClane.
- "Doc" Brown is depicted as an eccentric, absent minded, loner professor with crazy ideas such as a mind reading device that does not work. He does however invent a time machine.
- Malvin (Eddie Deezen) is portrayed as an overly annoying computer hacker who lacks proper social skills.