Deceptively Intelligent Self Deception

High intelligence does not protect us from taking on stupid, or even evil, beliefs.

We can solve riddles or puzzles most people cannot. We have climbed the cognitive ladder in difficult subjects, and we reason with ease in mathematics, the natural sciences, law, or philosophy. It’s easy for us to spot the weak foundations that common people’s beliefs rest on. So we begin building something “better.” A belief structure more refined than the simple, unsturdy convictions others live by. And when someone points out the stupidity, or even the cruelty, of our contraption, we can easily chase them off with our blend of verbal mastery, superior logic, and vast knowledge of facts. But in the end, we are just blinding ourselves. We become blind to truth, because we know how to dissect truth until it dissolves in philosophical ambiguity.

(Written 2025)