You make your case very poignantly. I'll have to think about this a bit more.
In particular, it does seem to me that people whom I find exceptionally trustworthy in my own life tend to have at least some serious disagreements with the respectable opinion, or at least aren't prone to stonewalling with pious rationalizations and moral condemnations when presented with arguments against the respectable opinion. But I'm not sure how much this is a selection effect, given that I myself have some opinions that aren't very respectable.
This is thread where I'm trying to figure out a few things about signalling on LessWrong and need some information, so please immediately after reading about the two individuals please answer the poll. The two individuals:
A. Sees that an interpretation of reality shared by others is not correct, but tries to pretend otherwise for personal gain and/or safety.
B. Fails to see that an interpretation of reality is shared by others is flawed. He is therefore perfectly honest in sharing the interpretation of reality with others. The reward regime for outward behaviour is the same as with A.
To add a trivial inconvenience that matches the inconvenience of answering the poll before reading on, comments on what I think the two individuals signal,what the trade off is and what I speculate the results might be here versus the general population, is behind this link.