I think it’s the high average types, between one and two standard deviations above the norm that are the worst, not the truly high IQ types. It may be a difference on what we consider high IQ, but I consider high IQ to be rare enough that if you walk down the street and see 100 people, you won’t see one.

Anyway, people in that range are smart enough to have gotten straight A’s through most of their classes in high school and college, and tend to think they’re very smart. In the grand scheme of things, they’re a bit better than average, but function more on learning than on reasoning. They’re actually fairly numerous, and most well paid professionals are in this range. The most vehement vaccine advocates I know in my circle I’m pretty sure are in this range. A lot of outspoken liberals in this range - most extremely outspoken liberals will gladly tell you they graduated from such and such university with honors. These are also the same people I see parroting “the science.”

I know this is all anecdotal, but I know a guy with a truly high IQ - he ceilinged an IQ test at the local university (160+, at least 4 standard deviations above the mean) more than once (as child and adult) so we can comfortably say he has a very high IQ. He also took the MCAT (test for med school) and was in the 99th percentile. He’s actually a very humble guy, he will attentively listen to what you say and speaks without jumping to conclusions. I’d spoken with him right before lockdowns began, and he was pretty convinced that covid was a scam even then. Had good reasons too, and none were conspiratorial in nature, but basically none of the data fit.

The unfortunate thing though, these high average types are likely seen to be “smart” by the average and low average types, so it’s very dangerous when they’re misled. They’re natural leaders of the masses, and most lack the humility necessary to critically access their viewpoints.