Food for thought. However, there are some generalisations. Tribalism exists in all areas of life. The danger in your argument is that ‘the people’ know what is right, but are these ‘people’ not driven by religious and political dogma? Elon Musk is a product of a political system. Musk built his empire from a position of privilege and exploitation. In isolation, one can be impressed by his practical achievements, but one can argue that he achieved this within a specific political framework. I studied research methods, and here in the UK, well at least at UCL, research methods is a crucial component of the political science course. Academics can frame ideas using either quantitative or qualitative data or both. I agree that one should not generally view academics as being politically neutral. Academics are a product of their culture.