This is a good and very important question for us to ask and investigate right now. However, I would start by assuming that people have good critical thinking s

This is a good and very important question for us to ask and investigate right now. However, I would start by assuming that people have good critical thinking skills and avoid suspecting or suggesting mental illness is involved. There are enough smart people being hostile towards science that this needs to be taken seriously. And it’s also important to recognize that all of us as humans are susceptible to having strong beliefs that aren’t true. In the media and politics, there has been a concerted attack on public trust in science, and it’s working. When science is telling us things we don’t want to hear, things that are hard to change, sometimes people with agendas try to undermine the message in hopes that we don’t affect the economy or have to undertake any costly actions. That effort seems to get getting stronger, and of course when the President participates and publicly calls scientists names, it certainly doesn’t help. There are quite a few good articles and podcasts covering stories of smart people who went down the Qanon rabbit hole, I think that’d be a great place to start exploring.