re: Why many "intellectuals" become complete idiots

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Yes - I like the related "the menu is not the meal" (or you'll sometimes hear "the map is not the territory"), getting at a similar idea. You can over-subscribe to an abstraction which helps in one context but over-clarifies in another. In political discussion the map/menu is generally ideology. Some of the best thinkers tend to resist totalizing systems, though.

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I like that those, humans can't model the entire world at more than a vague level of fidelity even when attempting formal modeling.

To reference Lt. Gen. William B. Bunker (who Donald Rumsfeld inherited)," there are the known unknowns, and the unknown unknowns."

People should be willing to accept when their model is breaking down, but as in the OP, there does become an intransigence of "my model works, it's the data that is broken".

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sorry jethro "converse" means to participate in a conversation.

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Well yes, yes it does mean "to participate in a conversation." That reflects its use as a verb.

Then again, as the song goes:
"There's a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings"

LINK ]

I watched that the other day. He has a lot of solid content

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Many times, the models are the engine that drives the earnings/system that powers the experts’ lives.

The intransigence is in part a result of their vested interest in their models being correct.

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Agreed, I've seen this be true in a number of cases.

Would you rather change your wrong decision to a right one, knowing that your leadership will lose confidence in your expertise.

Or push ahead and try to make a wrong decision close enough until you can blame someone else for it failing...

#2 is the popular choice by far.

My PhD(in a STEM field) father always told me don’t confuse education with intelligence. His best friends were Cajuns who could fix anything and had a multitude of trade skills. He favored the company of those kinds of people over these “intellectuals” who love themselves.

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You forgot to credit the quote to the GOAT -- James Spann

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He was quoting George Box, though the thought has been around longer.

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My PhD(in a STEM field) father always told me don’t confuse education with intelligence. His best friends were Cajuns who could fix anything and had a multitude of trade skills. He favored the company of those kinds of people over these “intellectuals” who love themselves.

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Your father was a wise man.

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doesn't really mean we should blindly trust his political stances

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Blind trust in anything political is really inexcusable. The appeal in Musk is not his viewpoint(s) per se, but rather in the underpinning logic.

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I just think we should keep a close eye on people who might have self serving interests

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For sure.

E.g., He pivots from logic and rationale to obvious talking points and rote when he gets dragged into climate change discussions. Climate change and weather religion serves purpose for TSLA promotion though.