I had another section on "is this an echo chamber?" that didn't make it into the final version. It would have gone into internal consistency and evolution of th

I had another section on "is this an echo chamber?" that didn't make it into the final version. It would have gone into internal consistency and evolution of thought in the face of evidence as reasonably objective yardsticks. I'm not sure how much I'd be able to accomplish trying to establish a framework for critical thinking in a blog post. In any case, the message is much more, "I've been paying close attention and have found these people worth listening to," and I don't think "authority" is really the word I'd use to express my criteria. I mean, I had a whole section against authority, and in my penultimate graf I implore readers to do their own critical thinking and not blindly follow.