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.
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.