Bobby Was As Much of a Phony as the People He Despised

That was my take away from my first viewing. There seems to be a growing argument between two camps that love and hate this movie based on idealized conclusions, but I think the director's goal was to show the tragedy of American idealism eating itself into oblivion.

"At some point, Bobby decided to adopt the lifestyle of a common laborer even though he came from a wealthy family and was welcome to return to the family compound whenever he wanted."

That sort of thing was fashionable among the young, cool, and prosperous, the sort of people who'd write articles or make films about their adventures in Looking For America. They thought they were exploring the world and getting in touch with real life, and that they'd come back to their 10% or 1% bubble with infinitely more understanding of real people than their peers.

The actual working people who were being visited tended to be rather annoyed by such people, saw the rich adventurers as moochers or accused them of "slumming".

When he goes off on the group of phony intellectuals, he's brooding over the love he wants but believes he's already lost from Catherine Van Oost, Carl's fiancé and student. Remember, just before he explodes at them, he hears that Catherine is engaged to Carl. This is a big surprise to him, and you can tell by his facial expression he's not happy hearing it. Then after his explosion, he goes searching for Catherine, who left the gathering, and winds up being throttled by Spicer, the beefy ex-sailor.

Besides that, they were "totally full of shit."