I promise I won't comment on bizarre foods.  Sorry.

For the most part, these "left wing" folks, like Wilson, are academia types.  Their knowledge come primarily from reading papers or books written by their colleagues like themselves.  It's quite rare that they acquired their knowledge from real life experiences, if you get the drift.  Then they go out and broadcast their findings to the world.  If they have Ivy League in their credentials, people who listen to them think they're infallible, and thus what they say is "truth".

But these folks, supposedly following scientific method principles, may develop a theory. They then go out to find evidence to support it.  If evidence is against it, they struggle, and rationalize a path to  ignore it.

Of course, this happens to "right wing" folks too.  So  I like to listen to what the guy on the street says, like you.