<p>Obviously, if what I meant was that if you don’t agree with Chomsky, then you are dumb, I’d be a pretty intolerably ignorant person myself. I’m pointing out what I see a lot in reactions to intellectuals, that if they don’t take absolutely every hypothesis and every possible side of an argument seriously, then they are arrogant or opinionated or incapable of being objective. Nowadays everyone with half a brain thinks they’re entitled to an opinion about everything, even things they don’t know a wink about, and I’m of course including myself in this. At least I don’t expect my unsubstantiated opinions to be treated with the same reverence everywhere I go as someone who has studied the subject for most of their life. That’s not to say a well-learned guy can’t be wrong, but I just see this sense of entitlement and lack of respect so much I had to point it out earlier. And it really drives me crazy that those who are actually doing the disrespecting turn around and cry foul and indignant that they haven’t received due respect themselves.</p>