It's a slippery slope to anti-intellectualism but I feel myself slipping. Au contraire. You may be being truly intellectual for the first time. Do you know the

It's a slippery slope to anti-intellectualism but I feel myself slipping. Au contraire. You may be being truly intellectual for the first time. Do you know the motto of the Royal Society, the organization most responsible for the birth of modern science? "Take nobody's word for it." That is the essence of science -- replication and verifying things for yourself. You are not anti-intellectual just because you question the authorities in charge of a particular institution (academia). What fields are as sturdy as particle physics? Medicine? Biology? Climate change? IMO, fields where there isn't a quick feedback loop between controlled, real-world experiments and obvious result are almost all unsound. That includes macroeconomics, psychology, long-term nutrition, etc. In these situations, you can always play with the variables to get pretty much any result. Thus academics who either are good at playing politics and PR, or who have a politically convenient message, will rise to the top, not the academics who are rigorous and honest. You can find good academics, but they are rare and usually aren't the famous and acclaimed ones.