I didn't even need any of these qualifiers of being an "intellectual" to tell you that I'm an uncultured slob tbh I regularly call myself that lol

Look, there's so many standards out there that different people want you to live up to, even if they themselves are incapable of reaching 'em. I say.. who cares? You're never gonna be able to please everyone, so like look for that personal growth on your own terms, not theirs. Your journey is your own, and it's certainly not a race, so like.. you do you at your own pace lol

Honestly when it comes to a topic like this i think it's a matter of striking a balance. A person shouldn't be so ignorant that they refuse to learn and in the same vein someone of "high intellect" or class shouldn't lord their level of knowledge or culture over others. It's like a person should be open to learning more and growing as a person but also not be a total snob about it.

Like following the listed things in the op:
-I've been to 3 states each over a hundred miles apart in my lifetime and took one smaller trip away from home that was a week long in a college campus for church camp

-i've never been good at geography but i'll recognize some places over others (more to do with "roaming the world" on google maps than physical travel, much less geography classes in k-12)

-i haven't checked out or bought a physical book in a very long while (which is a shame knowing how close my local library is) but i'll sometimes read digital ones if i can get myself to focus for long enough

-i'll watch tv news or read the paper but i also rely on social media when an hour long news cast gets to be too much (i don't know how people who watch all day news channels can take it)

-i shop around but unless it's something i really need or want my go to will be a walmart. the only time i've made a purchase at a mall was for dresses on clearance (jcpenny anyone?) or a pair of sneakers (no more than 40-50 cause who's paying 100+)

honestly even the concept of having a checklist to pass as literally anything is a pain but that just seems to be the way humans operate now

also i was "guilty" of believing the brown cow thing at a five and under age but i was also convinced that santa and the tooth fairy were real then too; I just thought that's supposed to be a part of childhood innocence (kids figure it out later anyways unless someone breaks the news early)

I don't think I'm an uncultured slob?

I can hold up a decent conversation with anyone if they want to tall about current events in general. I know enough about current movie and game culture that I can understand jokes even if I don't play.

As for your criteria, I read book. Webnovels, but books are books, right? I know my basic geography, so when I met a client from Kazakhstan, he was happy to hear I knew the country! (Yayy yuri on ice knowledge)

I've travelled to a couple of different countries in my short lifetime. I went on a school trip to France and Italy (bless my school). I visited my home country, and I've travelled to my dream country (Japan). I live close enough to the US border to also make day trips to the states. It doesn't make me feel that cultured, other than knowing the security measures to enter different countries.

I'm quite up-to-date in my personal hobbies. If it's anime, I gotcha for days. Latest greenlight announcements, light novels, tropes, genres, recommendations, what's popular, and so on...

I must admit I hit a lot of the “cultured” checklist, but I don’t think that never having left your town or not reading books regularly, makes you uncultured.

I have met many world travelers that only have a shallow knowledge of other cultures. I have met people who can read whole novels in one day, but don’t have a single deep thought. There are trashy books just like trashy tv. There are the travelers that exploit other cultures as if they are just another “notch” on their belt.

Being cultured is simply being open to new experiences. It’s not about how far you travel, or where you buy your groceries, or how many books you’ve read. That is elitism, not culture. Having time to read books is easy when you don’t spend most of your hours working. Traveling is easy if you have extra money and a job that readily gives you time off. Heck I work at a Library and hardly have time to read, I listen to books on audio while driving to work lol.

I do hate Walmart though, gives me a panic attack every time.

I'd say I'm pretty cultured, both from my education, and from the fact most of the different facets of my life are organized around my intellectual life;

BUT
1) there are a lot of pretty common subjects I know much less about than the average person. I have a tendancy to be extremely specific in my interests, and it's not always very logical. For eg. even if I was born and went to school in France, I'm pitifully bad in French history (but much better with English history, which I find more interesting for reasons I completely ignore).

2) I have a very, very deficient memory. Thus, my actual knowledge is significantly smaller than the addition of all of what I learnt. I'd say I know today maybe 20% of what I learnt. Languages are a very bad one. I can entirely forget a language.

I have no idea, to be honest.

There's a famous traveler in my country. He traveled a lot and seen a variety of cultures, yet he's close minded about everything. Or certain disrespectful youtuber comes to mind. You could travel the whole world and still be pretty much uncultured. I myself traveled far from home, but never left my country.

I know pretty well map of my country and Europe, but I'm completely clueless if someone asks me about the US states. There's like three I'm 100% sure where they are. The rest of them is a guessing game of "I think it's on the south, maybe?". Same with pretty much all the other continents.

I like reading, but I struggle with it and my reading pace is so slow... xD But I don't know if more annoying are people, who say reading is dumb, or people, who force on you classical literature, because fantasy and YA aren't real books for some reason. I get it with some titles, but... xD

I get most news from social media, because watching news on TV is way too frustrating for me. I mean... some news channels are good, but some other... Not so much. xD

Adding something to the thread... I'm an artist, yet I don't know a lot of names of famous artists. There are painters who are so famous everyone and their grandmas recognize their paintings, but when people mention people working with comics, animation or other modern media then as long as that's not a name that's everywhere, because their work is super popular, I'm completely lost.

I get a feeling that everyone is a lot smarter than me all the time, lol.

I can hold conversations with most people; just depends on how my interest level is...if I'm not interested, then it's not happening.

I've been to other places- but nothing in the past 2 decades. One of the reason I'm trying to get certain things turned around financially- so that I can travel more. It sucks looking at your life at the end of the year and realizing you haven't done anything as simple as travelling. I've made it to the Pacific coast(San Diego) but have yet to make it to the Atlantic(and I live 70 miles from that); I also wanna travel to Seattle to see how things are there.

With the advancement of digital books and online articles, I do a bit reading when I want to broaden my knowledge about things. I do want to get back to going to the library and getting a book to read, but "who has time"? I live less than a block from the library, but havent been there since I got a new library card...I would love for the craziness of life to slow down enough where I can get back to sitting down with a book and getting lost in the story for a couple hours.

I do get a lot of news from social media, but I hate watching the news on TV even worse. I feel like all the news on TV does is publicize & amplify a LOT of negative topics/stories for ratings. It gets depressing after a while...

I do a lot of conventional shopping at Walmart- but living in the city does have its perks. For example, here, I dont buy my lettuce from Walmart- their lettuce especially SUCKS; I buy my lettuce at Kroger...I'll buy an occasional t-shirt, workout clothes, underwear & socks from Walmart, but no other clothes.

Does any of this make me more "intellectual" than the next person? I doubt it...does it make me particular/picky af? Probably so...

It's interesting to see the definitions of "culture" for various people.

I don't think enjoying things that are considered "low" or "high" culture by themselves define an individual. It's usually when the list tends to drag into embracing things only on one side of the cultural divide that it gets weird.

Like the concept of well rounded has been lost.

I'm an uncultured sloth. That's all.

Oh my god I am. The last real book I read (excluding comics of course) was Great Gatsby, and I only read half of it and it was for English class lol. I'd never moved anywhere outside of my hometown (well, I'm a minor) but I've been to Taipei every year I guess? I'm also a total dumbass when it comes to politics and history. Actually I learned like 70% of my knowledge of history from taking Art History. Still, I'd like to think that I'm well-spoken and openminded. Just don't try to talk to me about Trump because I don't know wtf he did this week and frankly I don't want to.

I hate the idea of there being this magical line between high and low culture, decided by some mystical "canon".
But I also hate the idea that there is some pride to be had in never travelling, never bettering your knowledge or engaging with serious or challenging works or critical theory, that that's somehow "more real".

I have two degrees, I speak fluent Japanese and studied in the country for about a year. I have travelled widely across Europe and I live in trendy East London. I'm passionate about Shakespeare and could summarise most of his plays and hold my own in a discussion on key themes, I will jump at the chance to see them on stage, especially at The Globe. I enjoy good quality wine, teas and food. I'm always up for a trip to the art gallery or museum and can identify most key aesthetic and cultural movements. I'm modestly famous on the internet for having a "fancy sounding" voice. My favourite fashion brand is Hobbs.

...But that's only half the story. I'm not the upper class snob some people might believe from that. I was born in statistically the most working class town in Britain, in a very poor part of Northern England and still have the accent (surprise! The fancy sounding voice isn't my normal speaking voice!), my dad worked nights in the shipyard and I didn't have much as a kid. I'm proud of where I'm from and I despise flashy ostentatious wealth and pretentious people. My favourite things to do outside of my job are reading trashy shounen manga, watching cartoons and playing video games. My perfect breakfast is a big mug of builders tea and a bacon buttie with ketchup. My favourite writer is Terry Pratchett.

I believe that a person can think deeply about and learn from anything. Every piece of culture is worthy of consideration and everyone should think about what they consume. Trying to learn is always going to be harder if you have a hard life, and I respect that. I've had advantages due to my parents gaining qualifications, though it wasn't always easy, and I've been lucky enough to be introduced to certain circles, but I've also worked really hard on my end to broaden my knowledge of the world and culture where I can with the resources at my disposal. When the internet exists, there's really no excuse to act proud of ignorance about which fork is the right one to use, or the proper ettiquette for sushi or what differentiates modernism, post-modernism and meta-modernism; you can just google it.

Well I listen to jazz and study art history, so no I'm a pretentious snob.

anti-intellectualism isnt about being stupid, ignorant, or uncultured

its an attitude that distrusts academia and the arts. you can travel broadly and be very knowledgeable and be an anti-intellectual, and there are anti-intellectuals who are prominent in our culture.

on the flip, you can never leave your hometown, get your news from social media, and mostly shop at walmart and NOT be an anti-intellectual. besides the social media thing, those two are more class indicators than intellectualism indicators - and associating intellectualism with class is very dangerous. the greatest intellectuals ive known have been gardeners, nurses, and construction workers.

Same latitude, slightly different longitude. Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Home of... nuclear submarines and getting dunked on by J K Rowling as a convenient "grim" setting for a crime novel

Why on earth some people still think that reading a books automatically make you more intelligent, or that is an inherent thing, which all intelligent people have to do? (－‸ლ)
It's stupid as hell...

Anyway nobody giving me a chance because I'm from rural town, so why to bother. Yes, I'm uncultured and I even like to pushing that fact forward, sometimes more than it needed, but anyway it's fun ^_^

But if say serious, so not, I don't think that I'm uncultured, but again, nobody is giving me chance because I'm living in rural place.

I'm reading this thread living 100 miles from my hometown for university, while reading wittgenstein in German. I still feel like an uncultured slob.