B means happy. It is completely out of scope

The raffish pundit is an iconoclast

Not a top-notch question

Regards

WHY WOULD SOME FOLLOWER WOULD-------- trumpet his ___[ iconoclast ]____ opinions !!
|__>> trumpet means to enjoy / cherish ---[iconoclast]negative opinions ????
AGAIN PLEASE EXPLAIN (@Carcass)---- (my solution !!

and yet beloved by his followers who trumpet his ___( SOME GOOD ) ____ opinions, ...
that is why he was followed by his beloved people!!

WHY NOT option --- [ (B) blithe ]

Hi

I do think you missed the real meaning of the sentence. here is why

This question is tricky even though is not the toughest one on earth

When the thing looks weird you should rearrange the sentence. The first thing to looking for is the subject, who or what performs or in a passive voice receives the action

the raffish pundit = subject

is laughing= the verb

all the way to the bank. = the action performed. It means basically he will be rich nonetheless what happened.

Dismissed by the establishment, This portion means= the ruling class dismissed the subject above or i.e. the establishment does not consider him at all

professing nothing but disdain for the canon,

The subject above in addition to being dismissed does also another thing: he was against the rules of law or an outlaw or a non-conformist person or unusual person....whatever it is. He was NOT a person who did adhere to the normal standards or rules of comportment

and yet beloved by his followers who trumpet his _______ opinions,

This is the most important part: considering all we said above his followers loved him AND they were happy because of his ICONOCLAST opinions. And why his ideas were iconoclast ?? turns out, because he was against the rules and all the standards

Under this light, B is completely out of scope.


I hope this helps

Regards

Typical official GRE problems would not give out too many clues like this one.
"Dismissed by the establishment, professing nothing but disdain for the canon, and yet beloved by his followers who trumpet his _______ opinions, the raffish pundit is laughing all the way to the bank."

"dismissed by the establishments", "professing nothing but disdain for the canon", and "raffish" all point to iconoclastic predisposition.