No, I disagree. They understand, but they cloak it in the term of “anti-intellectual” (their favorite pejorative against Sarah Palin).
Sounds like denial to me.
Sounds like they’re still trying to hold onto their self defined superiority by defining all those that are telling them that they are NOT superior as “too dumb to understand”.
We don’t have any problem with elites and achievement.
We have BIG problems with people using that “status”, real or self-defined, as an excuse to force their decisions on us.