I have two degrees in philosophy. I quit my PhD with an MA after I realized academic life wasn’t for me.
When people find this out about me… they rarely react positivity anymore. Most are confused, some look upset, others get defensive or crack cliche jokes about how I got a job with a useless degree like that or if I work at McDonalds.
It seems to have gotten way worse the past few years. In my late 20s/early 30s people seemed to react a lot more positively to this fact about my life? People would ask me about it and why I did it and what I studied specifically. I really liked those conversations.
I feel naive as to why philosophy is so controversial for the average person, anymore than English or History is? I really enjoyed my studies and still do them as a hobby now.
Frankly because everybody knows somebody in that line of academic study, or knows somebody that knows somebody. And it’s generally regarded as a waste of time with no practical outcome. My BIL studied philosophy for 10 years and ended up starting his own treadmill repair company, leveraging his previous skills as a mechanic. You just wasted 10 years of your life and $300,000 of money/opportunity-cost, basically, when most people can’t pay their rent, afford food, or have basic comforts.