That's another category IMO. I know lots of "intellectuals", some even with much education, who are idiots. Mistaking an ability to navigate and endure the rituals of academic institutions for intelligence. True idiots. I also know some "intellectuals" who know well that what they are lying, but because their arrogance makes them believe "it's for their own good the sorry lot". Not idiots so much as arrogant bastids. Then there are those who who know full well what they are doing is wrong, and do it anyway for profit and power. Not idiots, but sociopaths.

The folks I was talking about are different. Take them out of a political context, and they are capable, rational, and reasonable. They can see the obvious, make connections, spot inconsistencies and even admit when they're mistaken. Good folks you'd like to hang out with, work with, and enjoy having around. Yet inexplicably all that capability is suspended to follow The Party doctrine. No matter how absurd, no matter how extreme and irrational.