Derek thinks he is a "smart" guy, so I'll go over why his "buddies" are problematic.

In essence, they are all people who don't actually have any relevant expertise, and are just there to pull some words out of thin air to justify his nonsense.

Also, they might be far right extremists, work primarily with far right extremists, have been openly threatened by far right extremists, worked for far right extremists, or multiple of these categories.