Wasting Resources and the Pseudo Intellectual Elite

The primary tells for knowing that you are talking to a pseudo intellectual are:

Their parroting of ridiculous non-facts like "George W. Bush was a liar" or "Dick Cheny 'outed' a covert CIA agent" or "Clinton balanced the budget" or "Obama was born in Hawaii".

Their edu-snobbery about their "education" and why or how it is better than "yours".

Their incessent need to "one-up" who ever they are talking to because their entire self image is based on the idea that they are smarter than whom ever they are talking to.

Their claim to be open minded and accepting while censoring and shouting down any ideologies that appear contrary to their own.

In the end the biggest tell that identifies pseudo intellectuals is their attraction to and selection of leaders based on charisma rather than either education or intelligence. Don't even think about selecting someone who has a proved track record when there is someone else with charisma they would like to lift into status as "royalty".

In the end governments dominated by pseudo intellectuals who favor oratory and presentation over accomplishment and capability are all self defeating.

The more charismatic a person is, the better they get along with others, the less skilled they have to be to appear successful.

The less charismatic the more skilled a person must be to appear successful.

As actual skills and capabilites deteriorate in favor of charisma, oratory and presentation the more likely an organization is to fail, and this is the real tell.

The failure of the organization will never be the fault of the charismatic orator. It will be the fault of some "barbarian horde", which if the orator was as capable in reality as they were in presentation would have been defeated.