I struggle with this.
I was always the 'clever one'. I had a desire to find out. If I didn't understand something I'd find out more. I also am very aware that many academics and academic studies talk bollocks. Ben Goldacre's book 'Bad Science' was hugely influential, award winning and sold a lot of copies. So there has been a big cultural move in these 'clever' circles to question things and to question the motivations of people. Being 'clever' ISN'T the excuse.
I'd actually like to challenge this idea of what it is to be 'clever'. A lot of people who think they are clever, actually aren't that clever.
To go back to Lady Hale, she's a judge. She's been working in law for a long time. She's well aware that clever people tell lies, will twist the truth to suit themselves and will make up all manner of stuff to justify their own actions. It's not just 'thickos' who lie.
This is purely about arrogance and seeing yourself above others. The 'right thinking people'.
You social circle is superior so if someone in your social circle tells you something you respect them already so you don't vet what's been said. You use stereotypes to smear 'lesser' people. This is about social status not cleverness. Many people in this circle are actually pretty mediocre, truth be told. They don't think outside the box. It's about fitting in and never wrong stepping. This is the boy club manifesting in a new way. If you are in the boys club you don't get questioned. You are right. Your mate has a trans child? Fab they are a lovely family, they are respectable, they are liberals - there's no chance there's trauma or sexism or homophobia or even autism going on there - because I know them.
This is one of the key things drummed into you with safeguarding - just because someone is an upstanding member of the community or well respected never assume that they aren't capable of doing something bad.
You hear the comment all the time from Ploppers 'but my trans friend is lovely, they wouldn't hurt a fly'. One of the issues here is the 'keeping up appearances' issue when it hits a family. Everyone is desperate to show how accepting they are, they rarely talk about the impact or issues with behaviour that come with it. So those outside of this, don't really see this side of things because they just see people playing 'happy families' and the condemnation of those who don't play happy families - and the social smearing that goes with it.
There's a lot of middle class conformity going on here. Certain parts of Middle England struggles to cope with certain things - it's unbelievably straight (as in you go to school, you get good result, you go to uni, you get a good job, you get married, you have children, your children go to uni, you never ever do anything wrong). You don't drop out from safe cliches and thinking. To describe the following mentality: At a party you dance around your handbag, you absolutely don't ever decide to jump on a table and dance, not once. Well maybe there was this one time at uni, that you were so wild for ten minutes and you tell the story for the next twenty years. You do everything 'the right way' because 'that's what clever people do'.
An anecdote about this thinking: My son was told last week by a girl he sits next to at school "if you don't behave, you'll get a bad report". He's been having trouble with this girl. It's low level bullying and she thinks she's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Here's the thing - he's pretty much the best behaved boy in the class, he's top of the class, his last school report just was brilliant and I frequently have comments about what a nice boy he is and how hard he tries. But he still struggles. The structure of things doesn't suit him. He has ADHD (diagnosed). And this means he can't sit still, he struggles with focus in class and frequently gets told off for doodling. He can read a book whilst watching TV and is able to tell you everything happening in both. He doesn't conform. And ultimately this girl can't cope with this. She thinks you should do everything in a set right way.
They don't look like they've ever had a day of fun or being silly in their lives. They don't get it. They look at us as weirdos and have a snotty snobby attitude. It's all about this desire to sort everything and everyone in life into nice neat boxes. We don't fit their box so they think they are superior. It's viewed as almost a 'moral failure' is the best way I can describe it.
And that's the thing. Accepting transgenderism has flourished in certain circles. Questioning it has become a 'moral failing'. All this training? Well you conform. You don't break the rules. If school tells you to do something, you don't question why the rule is in place. You just obey it, because that's why you've done well in life. Rules are there for a reason. Rules are never wrong. Other people didn't do well at school, because they didnt do what they were supposed to - that's why they didn't get straight As. They didn't work hard. They didn't follow the rules. Note the phrase - 'educate yourself' at this point.
To go back to my point about who clever people are and who they are not.
There's two types of 'clever people'. Those who are rule makers and takers. They end up in positions of authority and think the rest of the world should be exactly like them. Many aren't actually that clever but have merely benefitted from a system that suits and favours them for whatever reason. They often achieve above their actual ability for this reason. It's privilege. They do well because they still together with like minded people and people from the same social circle. An increasingly closed social circle.
Then there's clever people who break the mould and break rules. They don't always do so well in life, but some do exceptionally well and they piss off the first group more than anyone else because they are almost viewed as 'having done it wrong and they shouldn't have achieved'. And because they are genuinely brilliant in a way that shines through regardless and can't be suppressed. They often fight against the system and often disrupt the system. And of course the first group hate them for this - it's their system. This group can show them up and can highlight the fact that many in the first group really aren't as clever as they think. That ruffles feathers.
We live in a period where social mobility is shutting down. Group one are trying to close ranks to protect their own. The system has become more rigid. You must be academic, you must tick the right boxes, you can't take a different route or think differently.
Lady Hale exemplifies these things. She is a judge. Her job literally was to sit in judgement of others. Now she sits in judgement of others who don't do what she does because she's morally superior and she follows her set education programme, like she's supposed to.
People like these can not conceive of the rules being wrong. They make the rules. They do the training. That's why the SC ruling has rattled them. They've been following what they were told was right only to fit out they've been acting unlawfully. That couldn't possibly be the case. They do everything right. It's impossible for them to do it wrong. That would be a moral failing. They are never going to admit they've spent the last few years enforcing sexism and homophobia now are they? It must be the SC judges who have been mistaken. The system must change back to the one we've been happy with and have spent so much time constructing.
It comes back to this dynamic of power and control.
People like Lady Hale live in a different bubble to others. It's a false world, detached from 'its a bit more complicated than that'. Their world is very black and white. There are only good people (the people they know) and bad people (people they won't / don't associate with).
It's been called the lanyard class. It's got little to do with cleverness and everything to do with maintaining status, keeping the status quo and retaining power over others.
Be mindful of the difference.
It's about not 'rocking the boat'.
The whole culture of the punishment of whistleblowers stems from the above.
See the fear of MPs on this.