Is it willful blindness?

@TimTuolomne Yes but why do they refuse to even look at evidence that suggests they may have been conned? It appears to be a form of defense mechanism that is very prevalent. Very powerful.

@jakuboj, Correct, sir. Most of us have never experienced the actual evidence of what fear does to our ability to reason; even to perceive. I have, and I fear that as much as I fear being liquified by ebola, because ebola will merely kill me (painfully). Being brainwashed will enslave me for the rest of my life.

Fear effectively disables our pre-frontal cortex, which moderates our impulses. When that is disabled, every impulse gains expression, something like Tourets Syndrome. That makes even smart people behave as if they are in an angry mob.

Very intelligent people can be intellectually reduced to morons by fear. Like hypnosis. And the more intelligent, the more their native intelligence is enrolled in service of the defense mechanisms that come up to cope with the fear. That makes even those who consider themselves good people especially dangerous in enrolling less intelligent people into their coping mechanisms. People like that were the officers in the Third Reich, taught to fear Jews.

For most of us, we fear something based on something that happened to us long ago - say authority, and the defense to that is to disobey the law, which comes up when we become fearful. Even smart people are not immune to that when made to fear - especially without their knowledge.

Fear has been generated by those trying to de-legitimize our Constitutional government by destabilizing it with an endless barrage of things intended to terrify different people, eventually to cover all fears and all people: Global Warming, fascism, the economy, Trump and Russia, racism, the police, pandemics...even the goal of destabilization of our government serves to make us fearful.

My advantage is that I am aware of what they are doing, and fear the consequences of that more than any of the fears they are creating. If not for that, I'd be beating the social distancing drum, just like everyone else.

@TimTuolomne Well said!