What bothers me is the people who have an aversion to those who read books. The anti-intellectuals and the willfully ignorant.

I couldn't agree with you more: I find it terrifying. I know outwardly seemingly normal people who refused to vote for Al Gore and later Barack Obama because "He's too clever." What kind of a screwed-up mindset must one have to prefer that the guy running the country be stupid? "This doctor's good at his job and knows what he's doing so I'm going instead to the guy down the road who's completely bloody useless." Yet the attiude seems not uncommon.