Is the term "intelligentsia" offensive?

[King of Kensington]

I admittedly use it interchangably with "intellectuals" though I know it has Marxist and "revolutionary" connotations.  But I recently used the term intelligentsia on a (albeit not very intellectual) discussion board to talk about intellectuals and the use of this term met with hostility from some European posters. 

[politicus]

I think Europeans on average would be more conscious of its Soviet/Eastern Europe connotation - being mainly used in the phrase "Soviet intelligentsia". I wouldn't find it offensive, but assume you were being ironic and/or sarcastic if you used it in a debate with me,

[Platypus]

No but the spelling is.

[King of Kensington]

Yeah, probably a difference between the Anglo-American world and the continent.  I've heard terms like "Upper West Side intelligentsia" and "Hampstead intelligentsia" used, and though it's often used in a red-baiting or at least mocking manner by the Right, sometimes it's a neutral term.  But I guess it sounds different if you're in say, Finland.

[© tweed]

occasionally used as a "pejorative", is what you're looking for

[angus]

Not to me. 

I assume you refer to artists, professors, poets, lawyers, priests, and other propagators of culture, effectively.  I don't see why it would be offensive, but you know that folks are always blindsiding each other with newfound excuses for taking offense.  It has become an industry.

[King of Kensington]

Not to me. 

I assume you refer to artists, professors, poets, lawyers, priests, and other propagators of culture, effectively.  I don't see why it would be offensive, but you know that folks are always blindsiding each other with newfound excuses for taking offense.  It has become an industry.

Yes, I do often use the terms "intellectuals" and "intelligentsia" synonymously, though in Europe prior to the university expansion it meant pretty much the highly educated and not just the narrower definition.

Seymour Martin Lipset in his book Political Man defined intellectuals as "all those who create, distribute and apply culture, that is, the symbolic world of man, including art, science and religion. Within this group there are two main levels: the hard core or creators of culture - scholars, artists, philosophers, authors, some editors and some journalists; and the distributors - performers in the various arts, most teachers, most reporters. A peripheral group is composed of those who apply culture as part of their jobs - professionals like physicians and lawyers.

Lipset the first and second groups in his definition of intellectuals and says that the European term "intelligentsia" included the third as well, but that has fallen out of use since.

The objection I think is that the Communist states used the term "intelligentsia" to basically describe the commissars in the service of the state.

[dead0man]

The people it's usually referring to seem to get offended at a lot of things, so probably.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

"Offensive" is pushing it. Definite negative connotations, yes, but hardly scandalous. Plus it;s such a fun word to say; the timbre is all kinds of evocative.

[The Mikado]

I'm not sure about offensive, but it's often used as an insult.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yes, it's almost always at least mildly pejorative. A term that used to be used in a similar - i.e. almost always disparaging - way in Britain was cognoscenti, but it seems to have fallen out of favour of late.

[muon2]

Not at all. I like their coffee.