When the goal is popularity, it is inevitable to forego a reasonable amount of sense. Sense & popularity don’t go together, because the world doesn’t relate to sense.
If sense & popularity went hand in hand, the most popular man in the world would probably be the head of Harvard.

......but no. The most popular person in the world rn is probably Donald Trump. Intellectuals will never be the talk of the town, because their level of reasoning will always leave the public bamboozled and ultimately disinterested