Why Being Intelligent Is Hated by Society

Schopenhauer per Apathy, 11.7K YouTube subs, 10 videos 497,869 views, a new kid on the block, since Jan 8, 2025

Multiple red flags, but not so bad. I’ve read worse. This was offered for members of an educated elite listserv, the first red flag was it is only available as a video. The second is the source is ‘Apathy’, i.e. no clue given as to who (person or group) is behind this social media propaganda offering. As soon as the video page opened I clicked ‘pause’ and looked for information about the context (i.e. I vet sources, and no clue given). Scrolling through the frames, it looks like professional level videography, many fine images of the anointed and quotes (Schopenhauer, Feynman, Newton, Einstein, Marie Curie, Benjamin Franklin, Ada Lovelace — the only other name dropped was Hegel, whom Schopenhauer viewed “as a complete fraud” but I’ll have to vet that claim), and at the end the comes the usual hard sell: “If this video resonated with you, share your experiences in the comments below. How have you dealt with the social challenges of being intelligent? And if you want to explore more insights from history’s greatest minds, hit that subscribe button. We’re just getting started.”

So, target is Western hyper-educated (by the Western economy serving intellectual elite schooling system) who may find personal advice on how to live in society with normals of value. Numerous scientific studies alluded to but none cited. I’m guessing all could be properly cited, but this production is a social media offering where you don’t do that.

So I download the unwatched for more than the second it took to pause it after checking out the other videos by title in this new as of Jan. 8 YouTube channel. I had to download it so I could upload to Otter AI that generated the transcript and summary. But Otter AI is so lame that it parses the words of the one speaker (unidentified) into a half dozen ginormous unreadable paragraphs, getting that wrong at times as in starting a new paragraph mid sentence. But the sentences, with capitals and punctuation, and names spelled right saves hours of turning a 12 minute video into something readable. I had to listen to the audio while creating paragraph breaks.

I may be an Arthur Schopenhauer fanboy as in a quote collection I’m working on he may be over represented by the number of quotes I added (Confucius has four quotes so far, Hegel four, and Marx gets two).

AI Summary

Schopenhauer’s insights from 200 years ago reveal why intelligence often leads to social isolation. He observed that intelligent individuals make others feel inadequate, activating threat responses in the brain similar to physical pain. This is especially pronounced in group settings. Schopenhauer noted that intelligence triggers unconscious self-measurement, leading to feelings of being judged. He also observed gender-specific dynamics, with intelligent women facing a double bind. Modern research confirms these patterns. Schopenhauer’s teachings offer strategies to navigate these social challenges, such as recognizing social dynamics, choosing the right moments to share complex ideas, and finding a supportive community.

Transcript

0:00
Have you sat down and wondered why being smart sometimes feels like a curse? Why do the most intelligent people often end up alone while those of average minds seem to thrive socially? Arthur Schopenhauer, one of history’s most brutally honest philosophers, cracked this riddle nearly 200 years ago.

0:16
He established that intelligence itself becomes a mirror reflecting back others limitations, and people never forgive you for showing them what they don’t want to see. Most people think it’s just coincidence that brilliant minds often live lonely lives, or maybe smart people are just socially awkward. But Schopenhauer saw something deeper, a pattern that plays out in every society in every age.

0:39
He noticed something interesting. When you put an intelligent person in a room, they don’t have to say a word to make others uncomfortable. Their mere presence becomes like holding up a mirror to everyone else’s limitations. And nobody likes looking in a mirror that shows them things they’d rather ignore. Think about it.

0:55
We celebrate all kinds of superiority. Money? People love rich folks. Good looks? We can’t get enough. Even physical strength gets admiration. But superior intelligence? That’s different. It stirs up a special kind of resentment, a quiet hatred that most people won’t even admit to themselves. So how did Schopenhauer come to understand this dark side of human nature, and why do his insights matter more than ever in today’s world?

1:18
Born in 1788 in Germany, Schopenhauer wasn’t just some ivory tower philosopher theorizing about life. He lived through the exact dynamics he wrote about as a young lecturer. He scheduled his university classes at the same time as the famous philosopher Hegel, who he saw as a complete fraud. While Hegel’s lectures packed the halls, Schopenhauer’s sat empty. But instead of just getting bitter, he got curious.

1:42
Why did people flock to comforting nonsense while avoiding harder truths? He started watching how people behaved around intelligence, not just in universities, but everywhere. He saw the same pattern over and over, the smarter someone was, the more others found subtle ways to exclude them, not because they were rude or arrogant, just because their intelligence itself made others feel smaller.

2:04
Living modestly off his inheritance, Schopenhauer had the freedom to observe society without needing its approval. He watched how people gathered in groups, who they welcomed, who they pushed away. The patterns he saw weren’t pretty, but they were consistent. Modern science has caught up with what Schopenhauer observed through pure insight.

2:22
Recent studies in social psychology reveal fascinating evidence about why intelligent people face social rejection. Brain imaging research shows something remarkable. When people feel intellectually inferior, it activates the same neural pathways as physical pain.

2:38
It’s not just a figure of speech when people say intelligence hurts their ego. It literally triggers pain responses in the brain. A 2021 study found that exposure to superior intelligence activates our threat detection systems, the amygdala, our brains, alarm system, lights up when we encounter someone significantly smarter than us.

2:57
It’s the same response we have to physical threats, explaining why the reaction feels so instinctive and hard to control. Researchers at Stanford discovered something even more interesting. This response is stronger in group settings. When people are alone with someone more intelligent, the threat response is minimal, but add more people to the room and it spikes dramatically [e.g. on social media].

3:17
Our brains seem wired to protect our social status more than our private self image. But this hard wired response isn’t the whole story. What Schopenhauer discovered about how we consciously process this unconscious reaction reveals something even more profound, and what he discovered about how intelligence affects human behavior would explain something that had puzzled people for centuries.

3:38
Here’s what Schopenhauer discovered, people don’t just randomly dislike intelligence. It triggers something deep in human psychology, something most of us won’t even admit to ourselves. When someone smarter enters a conversation, everyone else unconsciously measures themselves against them, not because they want to, but because they can’t help it.

3:57
It’s like putting a professional athlete in a casual pickup game. Suddenly everyone feels their limitations. Schopenhauer noticed how people react to this feeling. They don’t say, wow, this person makes me feel dumb. Instead, they assume the intelligent person looks down on them, even if the smart person hasn’t said a word about their intelligence. Others feel judged just by their presence.

4:18
And here’s the really fascinating part, the smarter someone is, the less they might actually judge others. But that doesn’t matter. People react to the mirror intelligence holds up, not to any real judgment. It’s why you’ll often hear things like they think they’re so smart about people who’ve never claimed to be smart at all.

4:35
But why do we react this way to intelligence when other kinds of superiority don’t bother us nearly as much. Schopenhauer noticed something fascinating about how intelligence affects men and women differently in society, while both face rejection, the dynamics play out in unique ways. For intelligent men, the rejection often comes as direct confrontation or subtle exclusion.

4:56
But for intelligent women, Schopenhauer observed a double bind. They face resistance, not just for their intelligence, but for breaking social expectations about how women should present themselves. He pointed out how society often forces intelligent women to choose between being liked and being respected, while beauty in women is celebrated. Intelligence gets a different response.

5:16
An intelligent beautiful woman, he noted, often faces more isolation than either quality alone would cause beauty attracts superficial attention, while intelligence pushes it away. Modern research backs this up. Studies show intelligent women often downplay their capabilities in social settings, something their male counterparts feel less pressure to do.

5:36
They’re more likely to face what psychologists now call the competence likability trade off. The more competent they appear, the less likable they’re rated by both men and women. Isn’t it interesting just how the most popular person in a group rarely seems to be the smartest? Schopenhauer explained why.

5:51
Mediocrity makes people comfortable. It’s like a warm blanket that tells everyone don’t worry. You’re just fine as you are. Average minds have a special social power. They don’t challenge anyone’s self image. They don’t accidentally make others question themselves. Instead, they make everyone feel good about their own level of thinking.

6:09
Think about conversations. At most social gatherings, they stick to simple topics, obvious jokes, basic observations, because keeping things surface level keeps everyone comfortable. The moment someone introduces a more complex idea, you can feel the room tense up. Schopenhauer saw how this played out in every field.

6:26
Mediocre artists got more exhibitions than brilliant ones. Average writers sold more books than profound ones, not because people couldn’t tell the difference, but because mediocrity never makes them feel inadequate.

6:37
Now let me show you how this same pattern plays out in today’s world and why it might be even stronger than ever. Look around your workplace or scroll through social media, Schopenhauer insights are playing out everywhere, just in modern forms.

6:51
That brilliant colleague who gets left out of lunch invites; the thoughtful posts that get ignored while simple memes go viral. It’s the same pattern he spotted 200 years ago in today’s offices, we’ve given it new names.

7:04
We talk about being a culture fit or having emotional intelligence. Sure, these things matter, but how often is ‘not a culture fit’ really code for ‘makes others feel intellectually uncomfortable’, even in tech companies that claim to value intelligence, you’ll notice the most successful people aren’t usually the smartest. They’re the ones who make others feel smart.

7:24
Social media has made this even more obvious. Complex ideas get ignored while oversimplified hot takes go viral. Why? Because depth makes people think, and thinking makes people uncomfortable. It’s easier to share a simple opinion that makes everyone nod than a complex truth that makes people question things.

7:40
Even in education, we see it. Schools claim to value intelligence, but watch what really gets rewarded. It’s usually not the most original thinkers, but the ones who make ideas simple enough for everyone to feel included.

7:53
Here’s the strangest part of how society treats intelligence. We need it desperately, but resist it actively. Schopenhauer called this the ultimate social paradox. Every society celebrates its geniuses after they’re dead, Newton, Einstein, Marie Curie, we put them on pedestals now, but during their lives, Newton was notorious for his lack of friends. Einstein was called a fool by his teachers. Curie was rejected by the scientific establishment.

8:19
This paradox shows up everywhere. Companies claim they want innovative thinkers, then reject ideas that challenge the status quo. Universities say they seek brilliant minds, then reward conformity over originality. Society needs progress but fights the very people who create it. Schopenhauer explained that intelligence is the only form of power that can’t be controlled or predicted.

8:39
You can regulate wealth, limit physical strength, even manage beauty standards. But you can’t control what a truly intelligent person might think or discover next [our superpower is we can ignore/deny/obfuscate]. Understanding this pattern doesn’t mean you’re doomed to social isolation. Schopenhauer wasn’t just pointing out problems. He was showing us a map.

8:54
Once you understand why intelligence creates social friction, you can learn to navigate it better. First recognize that you’re not doing anything wrong by being intelligent, the reaction you get isn’t personal. It’s a natural social dynamic. Understanding this alone can lift a huge weight off your shoulders.

9:08
Second, learn to read the room. There’s a time and place for deep thinking, save your most complex ideas for people and situations where they’ll be appreciated. This isn’t about dumbing yourself down. It’s about choosing your moments wisely.

9:20
Third, find your tribe. Schopenhauer noticed that truly intelligent people tend to form small, tight knit groups. Today, with the internet, it’s easier than ever to connect with minds that match yours. You don’t need everyone to understand you, just enough people who do. Some of history’s most successful intellectuals found ways to bridge this gap between intelligence and social acceptance. They developed specific strategies that we can learn from.

9:43
Take Richard Feynman, the brilliant physicist. He became famous not just for his genius, but for his ability to make complex ideas accessible without dumbing them down. He used simple language and relatable examples, making his intelligence inviting rather than threatening.

9:57
Ada Lovelace, often called the first computer programmer, created what she called social laboratories, gatherings where intelligent people could interact freely while making others feel welcome to join and learn. She showed that intelligence doesn’t have to be isolating if you create the right environment.

10:13
Even Benjamin Franklin, despite his towering intellect, deliberately presented himself as a constant learner rather than an authority. He would often phrase his ideas as questions or suggestions, making his intelligence feel like a shared journey rather than a superior position.

10:28
Now let me show you how all this comes together to change the way you approach social situations. Look, being intelligent doesn’t mean you’re destined for loneliness. Schopenhauer wasn’t telling us these things to make us feel hopeless. He was showing us reality so we could deal with it better.

10:37
Think about some of history’s greatest minds. Darwin spent years in isolation developing his ideas. Einstein worked in a patent office away from academia. Marie Curie faced constant resistance, yet they all found their way to make an impact and, more importantly, to find fulfillment.

10:57
The key isn’t to hide your intelligence or pretend to be something you’re not. It’s about understanding the social dynamics at play and working with them, not against them. Sometimes that means stepping back. Other times it means finding the right audience.

11:10
Always it means staying true to yourself while being smart about how you engage with others. Remember, just because society often resists intelligence doesn’t mean it doesn’t need it. Every major advance in human history came from someone who thought differently, who saw deeper, who dared to be smarter than average.

11:25
That’s not going to change. Next time you feel that social pushback against your intelligence, remember what Schopenhauer taught us. You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re just holding up a mirror, and how others react to their reflection isn’t your responsibility.

11:38
If this video resonated with you, share your experiences in the comments below. How have you dealt with the social challenges of being intelligent? And if you want to explore more insights from history’s greatest minds, hit that subscribe button. We’re just getting started.

No evidence, of course, but this video rhymes with , in point of view. Or some such group. Not saying right or wrong. There is “the ring of truth” value and new to me likely true information. The bias, relative to the current bias within intelligentsia circles, may seem old school Western, but all wisdom and learning cannot be contained wholly within one tradition. Of their six videos, with more to come, as I’m also a “Spinoza’s God” fanboy, I’m willing to consider the video with those words in the title.

The “we’re just getting started” suggests more than one person is involved and a likely “agenda.” I can guess about who and what, but I’m prepared to be surprised. I’m not in the bright 15–20 something cohort the offerings seem to be directed towards, but posterity is of interest and they need to consider a diversity of views not currently on display in popular culture.

Whatever “smart” or “intelligent” means, it is questionable whether IQ tests measure anything more than your ability to take IQ test, certainly not to think outside the box, or “deeply” or otherwise have even the slightest grasp of reality.

If being able to question presuppositions, all received verities, is attributed to being Giordano Bruno “smart,” then the discomfort of believing minds in the presence of inquiring minds may select for “social isolation” (and being burned alive at the stake). Perhaps the condition of being true believers (e.g. theists and atheists) is not homininan normal. Perhaps the ideology of zero-order humanism, the abstracted system of beliefs about the necessary primacy of the modern human metastatic enterprise, is a cognitive pathology (as is thereby our modern form of human).

Oh, and my Schopenhauer quotes (mostly quotes and not misattributions, but I haven’t made an effort to verify each). No agreement or disagreement implied.

• “The human need for socialization drives human porcupines together only to be mutually repelled by the many irritating qualities of the others. Codes of politeness and manners create a tolerable but unsatisfying balance between social warmth and irritation so the more independent and self-sufficient prefer more solitude.” — Arthur Schopenhauer 1788–1860 CE, philosopher
• “A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Although the absurd, as a rule, predominates, and it seems impossible that the voice of the individual can ever penetrate through the chorus of the befooling and the befooled, there yet remains to the genuine works of every age, a quite peculiar, silent, slow, and powerful influence and, as if by a miracle, we see them rise at last out of the turmoil like a balloon that floats up out of the thick atmosphere of this globe into purer regions” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “If we suspect that a man is lying, we should pretend to believe him; for then he becomes bold and assured, lies more vigorously, and is unmasked.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “The great affliction of all philistines like you… is that they have no interest in ideas, and that, to escape being bored, they are in constant need of realities. But realities are either unsatisfactory or dangerous; when they lose their interest, they become fatiguing.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “The most essential factor in happiness is health… the greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “What everyone most aims at in ordinary contact with his fellows is to prove them inferior to himself; and how much more is this the case in politics.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Religions are the children of ignorance and do not long survive their mother… Mankind is growing out of religion as out of its childhood clothes.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “The ordinary man places his life’s happiness in things external to him — in property, rank, wife and children, friends, society and the like so that when he loses them or finds them disappointing, the foundation of his happiness is destroyed.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “If you want Utopian plans, I would say: the only solution to the problem is the despotism of the wise and noble members of a genine aristocracy, a genuine nobility, achieved by mating the most magnanimous men with the cleverest and most gifted women. This proposal constitutes My Utopia and my Platonic Republic.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Time is that by virtue of which everything becomes nothingness in our hands and loses all real value… the most insignificant present has over the most significant past the advantage of actuality… the former bears to the latter the relation of something to nothing.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Accustom yourself to regarding the world as a place of suffering, a sort of penal colony and expect the calamities, torments, and miseries of life as normal… this makes us see other people in their true light and reminds us of what is most important: tolerance, patience charity” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “It is only our own basic thoughts that possess truth and life… other people’s thoughts are like crumbs form another’s table, the cast-off clothes of an unfamiliar guest.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “One man will laugh at what makes another despair… the stronger the susceptibility to unpleasant impressions, the weaker the susceptibility to pleasant ones, and vice versa.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “My philosophy has never brought me a sixpence; but it has spared me many an expense.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “If justice ruled on earth it would be sufficient to have built one’s house: it would require not further protection than this manifest right of possession. But because injustice is the order of the day, whoever bult the house must also be in a position to protect it” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “A truth won by thinking for ourselves is like a natural limb: it alone really belongs to us. This is the difference between a thinker and a mere scholar.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process… we gradually lose the capacity for thinking… This is the case with many learned persons: they have read themselves stupid.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “The man nature has endowed with intellectual wealth is the happiest. Solitude is welcome, leisure is the highest good, and everything else is unnecessary, even burdensome. What external promptings he wants come from the works of nature, and from contemplation of human affairs and the achievements of the great of all ages and countries.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Genius always rises like a palm-tree above the soil in which it is rooted.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “As the biggest library in disorder is not as useful as a small, well organized one; a vast accumulation of knowledge is of far less value than a much smaller amount thought through and compared to personal experience and other knowledge.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “When we come to see how superficial and futile are most people’s thoughts, how narrow their ideas, how mean their sentiments, how perverse their opinions; we will understand that to lay great value upon what other people say is to pay them too much honor.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “If I maintain my silence about my secret it is my prisoner…if I let it slip from my tongue, I am its prisoner.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Too much reading robs the mind of all elasticity… the surest way of never having any thoughts of your own is to pick up a book [or smart phone] every time you have a free moment.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Riches are like sea water: the more you drink, the thirstier you become; and the same is true of fame.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Compassion is the basis of morality.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Simplicity is the seal of truth… naked truth must be so simple and intelligible that it an be imparted to everyone it its true shape — without disguising it as religion [or politics].” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “The relation of the sexes is really the invisible and central point of all action and conduct… the cause of war and the end of peace; the basis of what is serious, the key to all illusions, and the meaning of all mysterious hints.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “By nature and from the first, it is not justice that rules on earth but force… Justice is in itself powerless. To draw this over to the side of justice, so that by means of force justice rules — that is the problem of statecraft.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “The actual life of a thought lasts only until it reaches the point of speech… As soon as our thinking has found words it ceases to be sincere.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “It is quite a piece of folly to sacrifice the inner for the outer man, to give the whole or the greater part of one’s quiet, leisure, and independence for splendor, rank, pomp, title and honor This is what Goethe did. My good luck drew me quite in the other direction.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “The art of not reading… remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Thus, the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “While philosophy has long been obliged to serve entirely as a means to public ends on the one side and private ends on the other, I have pursued the course of my thought, undisturbed by them. — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “I have long renounced the approbation of my contemporaries.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Deeply rooted in human nature is the mistaken belief that the ultimate goal for all our effort is gaining greater respect from other people… set limits on this great weakness and susceptibility to public opinion.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “If you want to earn the gratitude of your own age, you must keep in step with it. But if you do that, you will never produce anything great. For that, you must focus on posterity. Be like a man who spends his life on a desert island working to erect a memorial so that future seafarers will know he once existed.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “All religion is antagonistic to culture… genuine morality is dependent on no religion” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Wealth is nowhere more at home than in the merchant class because merchants look upon money only as a means of further gain, just as a workman regards his tools so they try to preserve and increase it by using it.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “Every true thinker for himself is so far like a monarch… He takes as little notice of authority as a monarch does of a command; nothing is valid unless he has himself authorized it.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
• “What distinguishes a moral virtue from a moral vice is whether the basic feeling towards others behind it is one of envy or one of pity.” — Arthur Schopenhauer