Bought priesthood is a term originating with the United States labor press in the mid-19th century and popularized again more recently by

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...

s like

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...

. It refers to the constellation of technocrats, columnists, pundits, university professors, public intellectuals, business

lobbyist In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

s and so on who benefit from the political status quo and use their position to defend and support it. The bought priesthood represents the flip side of McCarthyism and the

Hollywood blacklist The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying empl ...

, which sought to marginalize public figures whose beliefs and advocacy were deemed to threaten or undermine the political status quo. In a 1994 essay, Chomsky defined the term this way: :The labor press also condemned what they called the "bought priesthood," referring to the media and the universities and the intellectual class, that is, the

apologist Apologetics (from Greek , "speaking in defense") is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and ...

s who sought to justify the absolute despotism that was the new spirit of the age and to instill its sordid and demeaning values.

References

Labor movement in the United States Noam Chomsky Pejorative terms for people {{poli-term-stub