A distinct snobbery more than evident on social media is that academics, including socialist academics, only participate in discussions with other academics or prestigious people. They don’t lower themselves to discussion with lesser beings who don’t have advanced degrees. Activists & working people in general have great respect for intellectuals who contribute understanding to our struggles. But it’s not a respect that goes both ways. That dislocation between academics & activists is central to the crisis in transformational politics today & speaks to the alienation of academics from actual political struggle. If you don’t respect the actual struggles of working people, how can you make any useful theoretical contributions? More importantly, what’s the point of your politics?