I think many on the left actually do have a hostility toward expertise, as evidenced by many anti-vaccine and anti-GMO activists calling doctors shills and scientists racist/classist. They believe, as you note, that anything associated with status (quo) or higher ed is better. While rightists mock higher ed for its supposed indoctrination practices, leftists mock it for its supposed snobbiness and elitism. As with most things, the truth about intellectualism and higher ed is somewhere in the middle.