Intellectuals can tell themselves anything, sell themselves any bill of goods, which is why they were so often patsies for the ruling classes in 19th-century France and England, or 20th-century Russia and America.
Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?
Freedom costs you a great deal.
Fashions in sin change.
You lose your manners when you're poor.
History is made by masses of people. One man, or ten men, don't start the earthquakes and don't stop them either. Only hero worshipers and ignorant historians think they do.