How do we know what we know? Why do we believe what we believe? And why do we change our minds less willingly than we’d like to admit? «Notoriously often, small but key events in our lives can produce a rigid intellectual or political orientation thereafter.» And thus: «Our political opinions, ultimately, are what we feel about the world, not what we think about it.» And also: «Most people’s views about the kind of things that happen today are extensions of concerns of their own ego. And consequently, invitations to change their minds because new facts emerge are in fact a threat to the strength and even survival of that ego.»

From Weekly Filet #528, in May 2025.