> A continuing ignorance of established work in the field (particularly when the Internet lets you get away with it, in "soft subjects" like philosophy, sociology, political theory and critical theory[3]) is par for the course in both PG and Scott's writings. If it's not published in a blog post or a trendy book written within the past 15 years, chances are that they'll think the concept is novel.

Sadly, this applies to pretty much every "public intellectual" these days. It's embarrassing to watch how ignorant Sam Harris is when talking about religion, Neil deGrasse Tyson's dismissal of philosophy, or Steven Pinker's opinion (or lack thereof) of Nietzsche. They clearly have zero education on or knowledge of the subject, and yet...they continue to be taken as authoritative figures.

I eagerly await the day when we have real public intellectuals again. Hell, people like Steven Pinker make past pseudo-intellectual figures like William F. Buckley look like genius savants.