I don't know if I've missed someone explaining it before, and if I have, I'm sorry. It's been a topic a few of us in my area have been discussing without zeroing in on the answer as we're looking for ways to help others wake up. (Admittedly, I don't know what that says about us.)
Does anyone know why are there people awake versus asleep? Not just recently, but even going backward 60 years. Why isn't everyone affected by the psy ops? Why do we see things and immediately think this is bullshit while others don't see anything wrong at all? Surely it cannot be an IQ thing. Is our skepticism from an automatic distrust in others or institutions? Is it academic from subjects we studied? Is it an independence mindset stemming from a natural desire not to be told what to do and think? Are those who appear to be oblivious to their surroundings and events actually oblivious? Or are they bullshitting us? It's like living in the twilight zone.
"Is it an independence mindset stemming from a natural desire not to be told what to do and think?" I believe this is a big part of it.
"Are those who appear to be oblivious to their surroundings and events actually oblivious?" I know a very intelligent and seemingly very sensible man (worked with him for 10 years). We kind of buddied up for lunches and discussed many things. Invariably after I'd offered my insight on something, he'd respond 'that's too deep for me'. I came to the conclusion that he's just skimming along on the surface of life and not making any effort to understand how life works, why people do what they do, and why things are the way they are. I was recently very surprised to discover he has TDS, voted for Biden and has become a Karen about masks and jabs, including badgering people on his FB page about them. He seems oblivious to anything other than what the MSM is feeding him, which is fear.
"Or are they bullshitting us?" The PTB are bullshitting us. The minions are afraid, and they're blocking any information that goes against what they believe because if they're wrong that means they allowed themselves to be duped, and they just can't or don't want to believe they'd do that to themselves.
What a shame about your former coworker. You zeroed in on another problem too. Why this group of people care about being wrong puzzles me. No one is right 24/7. I don't know what the big deal is. Questioning is how you learn.
For many It's an ego issue. Ego never wants to be wrong, so it tunes out anything that would make it wrong and fills one's head with all the reasons one is right. The process of gaining wisdom includes learning to manage one's ego such that it shuts up. Then one can gain the self awareness and understanding to realize that being wrong is no big deal. The alternative is to keep doing what one's been doing and go through life repeating the same mistakes, a level of wisdom that is beyond ego's comprehension.
I can't tell you how many times I've laughed at my own stupidity, and then moved on to learning what to do better.