[binkethy]

The last 20 years makes me question glib use of the word "elites" to refer to any arbitrary collection of individuals not necessarily based upon their wealth or whatever imagined social status the person invoking the word wishes to convey, with regards to said arbitrary collection of individuals.

You basically vomited a series of pop cultural phrases and managed to paint a clear picture with them, but i question your very mental boxes.

[binkethy]

But i would wager that astronomical societies were rather unfond of alien conspiracy buffs, so the feeling is likely mutual, as evidenced by this piece here. Hand wringing aside, one boring trope i am unfond of is this notion of a virtuous anti intellectual lower class of common folk gosh darnit... That is an elite pretension that smells like Rousseaus "noble savage"