Commons Exposure as Antielitism Therapy

Reading high‑status texts can unintentionally cultivate misanthropy and elitist contempt in intellectually ambitious people; a cheap, testable remedy is deliberate, low‑barrier engagement with community forums (local philosophy meetups, public reading groups) designed to provide corrective contact without cultural shock. Structured, repeated exposure to ordinary participants' thought and values may recalibrate contempt into curiosity and reduce status‑driven withdrawal. — If scalable, this technique offers a practical civic intervention to reduce elite‑driven polarization and the social distance that fuels populist backlash by turning interpersonal contact into a public‑policy tool.