Philosophy expert Julian de Medeiros<\/a>, a popular TikToker<\/a> and Substack blogger,<\/a> recently wrestled with this question, and it must have been on a lot of people\u2019s minds because the video received over 4.2 million views. \u201cWhy does it seem like so many people in power are so dumb? It\u2019s like, why can\u2019t we get a better class of leaders?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, de Medeiros believes that power and intellect are often at odds. \u201cI\u2019ve thought about it a bit more, and I think this is my thesis: that power is inherently anti-intellectual. Because what does intellect do? Intellect questions power. It speaks truth to power. It critiques power. And power doesn\u2019t like that,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd so power has to speak to the lowest common denominator. It dumbs everything down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s an anti-intellectual force. And that\u2019s why it seems like those in power are also the dumbest,\u201d he concludes his video. The commenters further expanded on de Medeiros\u2019 thesis. \u201cAlso, intellectual people question and analyse everything. A leader needs to be invested in their opinion and abide by it,\u201d one wrote. \u201cBecause those in power or seek power cares about the power only, so they make the decisions that keep them in power no matter what is the output,\u201d another offered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another reason people who are a few fries short of a Happy Meal are often voted into office is that there is a deep vein of voters who are skeptical of intellectuals. These people tend to be populists who value \u201ccommon sense\u201d over intellectualism and may see experts or highly educated people as dangerous and out of touch<\/u><\/a> with the common man. So, candidates position themselves against the \u201cintellectuals\u201d by either being their proud, dumb selves or by taking their IQ down a few notches while in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Theologian and philosopher Dietrich Bonhoeffer<\/a> (1906\u20141945) believed that dumb people often ascend to power because evil people have difficulty getting elected. So, they champion someone who may be more charismatic or connected and ride their coattails into power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, much like de Medeiros, Bonhoeffer believes there is a big difference between intellectualism and power. Therefore, once one attains power they are highly lifely to look like a buffoon. It\u2019s as if, \u201cSlogans, catchwords and the like\u2026 have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being,\u201d Bonhoeffer says.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s sad to realize that the very nature of power means that those who hold office, whether we voted for them or not, will probably disappoint us at some point. But the good news from this understanding is that we are freeing ourselves from the constant disappointment of having leaders appear rather dumb. Now, whenever we meet the new boss, we can assume he\u2019s just like the old boss and be positively delighted if they wind up slightly smarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWhy can\u2019t we get a better class of leaders?\u201d As the old song by The Who goes, \u201cMeet the new boss, same as the old<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/655818762_1407000414794279_5877024387870432984_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6748,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6746\/revisions\/6748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Why is it that dumb people are always in power?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"politicians,](\"https:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/origin-104.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat is anti-intellectualism?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n