That isn’t in my first page of Google results, but when I search for “public intellectual MIT” I see it. Ok, that guy sounds like a douche.
I saw the “dust-up,” and I saw many people describing other people as “public intellectuals,” a la Cory Doctorow, above. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with being described as such by other people – just like you can call someone an “eminent novelist,” but you’d be a douche if you referred to yourself in that way.
That’s why I asked funruly for specifics, because I didn’t expect “serious people” would actually use the term for themselves. Yes, I’m not sure what’s worse: “I’m a public intellectual” or “I’m China’s Top Ten Most Honorable Volunteer”…
