Random question but why do middle class people pretend to be working class when there not

I think that the formal class system is being steadily eroded in the UK, but at the same time wealth inequality is increasing. This leaves many people unsure of their position in society. Things are in flux. In many countries, France and Germany for example, intellectualism is respected and intellectuals are seen to sit largely outside the class system. I think of myself primarily as an intellectual, but this garners no respect in the UK and is not considered a defining social characteristic. I have been described in print as a "Marxist patrician", so I might as well identify as that.

The anti intellectual thing seems to be common in all English speaking countries. At uni to be called 'intellectual' was an insult. It seemed to mean pretentious or uptight.

I also dislike the way 'intellectual' or 'middle-class' is used to shut people up. I got that recently at the wrong kind of party, with 'racial privilege' thrown into the mix too. If anyone wants to set up an anti vaxxer thread, as that was the nature of the said party, I won't be joining in. I did ask them if they cared to seek the opinion of nurses and doctors dealing with covid on the front line before they came back at me again. No one did. 

My day job is freelance teacher. Middle class, working class, schmerking class, it's all the same. I provide a service, pretty much like a governess, however scrubbed and well educated is a servant. 

The anti intellectual thing seems to be common in all English speaking countries. At uni to be called 'intellectual' was an insult. It seemed to mean pretentious or uptight.

I also dislike the way 'intellectual' or 'middle-class' is used to shut people up. I got that recently at the wrong kind of party, with 'racial privilege' thrown into the mix too. If anyone wants to set up an anti vaxxer thread, as that was the nature of the said party, I won't be joining in. I did ask them if they cared to seek the opinion of nurses and doctors dealing with covid on the front line before they came back at me again. No one did. 

My day job is freelance teacher. Middle class, working class, schmerking class, it's all the same. I provide a service, pretty much like a governess, however scrubbed and well educated is a servant. 

To be called intellectual at university was an insult? How ridiculous! What were they thinking!

It is ironic that Britain has a form of Christianity deeply embedded in the state, but has a decided minority of practising Christians, whereas the opposite is the case in the US.

Jefferson and Paine laid the foundations for Militant Scepticism. America was only Christian at a superficial level. 

In fact, had it not been for CS Lewis, Britain would have abandoned Christianity after WW1. 

 I think the American War of Independence had some effect in Britain, Tom Paine and Jefferson were certainly intellectuals.

More so the Hugenots. They viewed Rome as the Church of the Tyrants and Rulers. The Reformed Churches were Civilised, in their eyes. 

I would have said religion, but it was on Europe we had the Inquisition.... 

You may be right.  Recent trends include commodification of education, an association of intellectualism with the political left, and an economically disempowered class who no longer see an escape through education and may be resentful of being talked down to.  Michael Sandel looks at this in The Tyranny of Merit.

Is it possible that anti-intellectualism came from over the Atlantic rather than over the Channel? Isaac Asimov wrote a one page article 'The Cult of Ignorance' in 1980.

Aldous Huxley defined an intellectual as someone who's found something more interesting to think about than sex.  I'm not sure I qualify.

It's hard to work out where the Anglophone anti-intellectualism came from. The Tudor monarchs and their courts were intellectually gifted (except Mary), James I carried on this tradition. Even Charles II was witty and had an interest in science. The Georges were uniformly dull-witted, and though they reigned through the 'Enlightenment', I think their example gave little encouragement to it. I suspect that it was the strong intellectual roots of the French Revolution that sealed distrust of overt intellect. Thereafter, intellectuals were regarded as possible subversives and revolutionaries.