“Prominent intellectuals who once leaned rightward”
Where did most “prominent intellectuals” “once” lean “rightward”?????
I am 60 years old and that never existed in my lifetime.
The vast majority of all “prominent intellectuals” has always been lefties!!!!
The “intellectual” as a concept is an artifact of the enlightenment project attempting to separate public affairs from metaphysics. It goes without saying that people dedicated to excluding consideration of morality from the public square have an a priori agenda.
One need only examine the careers of academic churchmen like Mendel or Lemaître to see how that agenda trumps pretensions of academic neutrality.