LordsFire
Internet Wizard
Being an 'Intellectual' has nothing directly to do with intelligence, and everything to do with what one's profession/social class is."""Intellectuals""" more like room temperature IQ retards
An intellectual is someone who's entire job is to ponder and discuss ideas, but they personally have no direct ability to put those ideas into effect, or accountability for what happens when people try.
An Engineer is not an Intellectual.
A professor of Engineering is probably not an Intellectual.
A professor of sociology is absolutely an intellectual.
Another way of putting it, is that an 'intellectual' is someone who is purely 'paid to think and share those thoughts.' They are found almost exclusively in academia and political think-tanks. A fair number of people start out as such, then branch out into politics, and this social class tends to have ties to a lot of other groups (lawyers, financiers, etc), as well as overlaps.
In the modern day, being able to parrot the Accepted Wisdom of Current Year can be enough to get categorized as an Intellectual in good standing.