We live in a society where vacuous mostly under educated people...

We live in a society where vacuous mostly under educated people become celebrities with far too much money and the top have hundreds of millions of followers . Sadly those followers are invariably working class people . People like to be associated with privilege and wealth and this subconsciously if not overtly gives them assurances of brand quality and acceptance. Its a superficial world not one where scientists are followed . So I disagree with your assessment of irrelevance.