my argument against it is that the total reliance on passive voice makes research FAR less accessible to people for whom english is a second languange and neurodivergent people. older academics tell me i’m being anti-intellectual.

That’s fair and completely understandable. One of the major reasons for anti-intellectualism are experts talking down on average people. A lot of experts and academics are typically affluent who hardly have to live with salt-of-the-earth, everyday workers and working class. It’s a well-known problem who in academia who scoff at student and laypeople. I am not an academic by profession, although I try to know the audience and talk to their level. But I admit that maybe I have come across as smug before without realising it.

younger academics tell me they don’t know what passive voice is and don’t believe it exists.

I guess the person just have to read academic literatures in their field to get the grasp on how to speak passively. It took awhile for me to master it.