@ColinTheMathmo @rodhilton

Is it ironic that this link lead me to learning how Crichton testified to legislative bodies that they should ignore climate change?

While I agree with the OP's point about Musk, I think there's a related phenomenon where people may be very good at one thing and have a deep understanding, but might be bad at different things.

@ColinTheMathmo @rodhilton

While I see the irony, it also seems to me there is justification for this kind of thinking.

We routinely encounter people who are very knowledgeable about one subject, and yet utterly clueless about another. It's not a big stretch to apply that to institutions.

As a astronomer, I always had the impression that most mainstream media and many people in general were pretty ignorant about science, but I would assume they knew "human" subjects better.