Thorstein Veblen's The Theory Of The Leasure Class published in 1899 was a detailed analysis on conspicuous consumption as status signalling. Conspicuous consumption is akin to a peacock's plumes. It's wasting resources on useless shit be it learning useless skills, purchasing jewelry etc. as a means of displaying that one is so wealthy that one can absorb the loss.
The high level of wealth generated by industrialization in the 20th century and the spreading of wealth to the lower classes has shifted the emphasis of status signaling to ideas. Elite universities are the hotbeds and elite intellectuals are the originators of ideas, the consequences of which the wealthy have the resources to recover from or are practically isolated from to begin with. A prime example is loose sexual morality that the upper classes do not practice themselves but that have had devasting consequences in the lower socioeconomic strata.
The bullshit spewed by intelligentsia in modern day West is getting crazier at an accelerated pace. The fundamental reason for that is that adopting an idea comes at a radically lower cost than purchasing some very expensive material status symbol. Thanks to mass media and education, ideas spread much faster than ever before. That leads to a need for a more rapid cycle of differentiation through ever more progressive ideas. The most shocking recent example in my own home country is the Gender Sensitive Early Education Program devised by the Feminist Association Union and funded by the Ministry of Education. The Evangelic-Lutheran Church has adopted this, which means that in nurseries run by the church, the children as young as toddlers will be introduced to concepts such as transgenderism and sex change operations. There are stories about little dragons who are born as boys who want to be girls and vice versa. The bullshit here lies in the fact that transgenderism cannot be reliably diagnosed with children. The number of adolescent girls who regret gender reassignment is on the rise. Here is a story about one such case (translated using Google Translate). I'm a Lutheran atheist and a member of the church. It seems that I'm going to have to vote in the next local church council elections for the first time in my life.
Trump is a disaster as president. But it could actually be a smaller evil to have a trump in the office than go without because such politicians can be useful as lightning rods to focus all the maliciousness emanating from the fiercely status signaling looney left.
A high intellect is a gift and if there is a thought crime it is wasting it by purveying bullshit to satisfy one's vanity rather than seeking the truth.