> Humans are capable of rational thought, but obviously there's some other cognitive process that overrides rationality in favor of some other preferred thought

> Humans are capable of rational thought, but obviously there's some other cognitive process that overrides rationality in favor of some other preferred thought process IMO it's human nature, we're inclined to an authority based mentality; either appeal to authority and defying authority. Consider that I'm likely to take statements from my friends and family at face value because A. I've built trust with them and B. it's expensive to sit down and thoroughly verify every little detail. And vice-versa. This is a feature not a bug! It's more pragmatic to have 1 person verify 1 thing than to have everyone trying to verify the same thing. This is true at the scale of society as well, for ex. I'm not smart enough to understand how mRNA vaccines work, but I'll accept their word and the data at face value that it does what it's supposed to. But the real question is what is straining our trust in society and each-other? (Again IMO) due to technology, we live in an unprecedented era of illusion and fake-ness. Our news is fake, internet celebrities cultivate fake lifestyles deep-fakes likes, upvotes, and ad-clicks are fake the reviews are fake the comments are fake algorithms track and "select" our content and on the flip-side, our entertainment, movies, and TV shows have never been more realistic And to top it all off, now there are UFOs! The line between real and fake has been totally blurred. Automating disinformation is a new thing, and we've been totally saturated with noise and information. We're in a transitional period and our old institutions are not equipped for what new technology is capable of. And it's a feedback loop where as institutions decay, our leaders become increasingly corrupt. Our politicians and scientists have incentive to be dishonest, and have admitted to giving false narratives that are "in the best interest of society". Therefore there are many who no longer trust authority figures who were meant to be ambassadors of the truth. Therefore some believe we can become pregnant with puppies.