I didn't want to imply that.

Educated people can be wrong alright. However really educated people are rarely absolute in their positions because they know that the world is not black and white and almost always the answer is "it depends" and "let's see it from the other side".

However polarizing views are attracting to non educated minds because they often give their believers simplistic views, potential enemies and pseudo-arguments that can nail the other "educated" or even just common-sense people. It's frightening really to see in action the amount of flattering it goes on in such cases.

I'm afraid to say that I disagree with you wholeheartedly. I have watched, several times over the past few years, experts and non-expert well-educated people actively deride scepticism of any nature. That is, it doesn't matter what the expertise of the person or group is, what their experience is, whether their concerns have been used elsewhere by those they criticise, or whether their concerns were once seen as completely reasonable and thus natural questions to ask - they should not be asking them, hence, they are not an expert or they are stupid.

I see this from utopianists, who believe that "if only these people would get out of the way we could fix this problem and reach utopia! If they are against us they must either be evil, stupid, or both, as our position is good (quality), good (morally), and reasonable."

The next step is cancellation. I suppose we're lucky that cancellation is as far as society is willing to go at this point but we know that these things can get much worse.

As such, I must side with strong scepticism of any view regardless of expertise (i.e. argument by authority as a fallacy is the default position) and any question, by anyone, of any standing, must be taken seriously. As J. S. Mill put it:

> If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

Do you think you (and your ingroup members) do not suffer from any of these sort of problems, or suffer from them substially less on an absolute scale?

yes you are right. Guilty as charged.

I have caught myself many times to crave for the simplistic easy answer and the ready made explanation. The one that tingles your ego suggesting: "How can nobody thought of that? Wow! I am really smart or all other are dump which is about the same.".

In order to escape its allure it takes one or more of the below:

a) self discipline which is not possible to have for all matters and domains b) external factors that force you to delve in to the thing at hand (a job) c) in specific instances you make it a hobby and you gain more intimate knowledge that can't be simplistic black and white.