Folks susceptible to societal conditioning to the point that it combats their ability to think critically aren't intelligent at all. They're just "staying safe" when it comes to the opinions of their tribe members. They're cowards who find the approval of their peers to be far more important than any truth. Hiding in the crowd to stay safe is smart on a survival level but not the kind of intelligence that society needs. Truly intelligent people eventually overcome their societal conditioning. People who can't see through it are fucking stupid, regardless of how many degrees they have.

This is very well said. Upvoted!

At the same time though, if we're totally fair to fellow anons....

It seems reasonable that the anon who remarked A lot of intelligent people close off their minds to "conspiracy theories" because they have been conditioned to dismiss them, not because they are stupid may have said this because he is an intelligent person who in the past has dismissed things due to very convincing presentation as "conspiracy theories" and then later realized the error in so doing. One goal of the cabal psy op, after all, is to shut down critical thinking, even in intelligent people. Occasionally they're going to snag some victims. This anon, if he was, is no longer one.

Education vs intelligence, after all. You can be well-read and learned, but that doesn't make you intelligent. Being intelligent also does not make you educated, although if you apply yourself you do have an advantage in acquiring knowledge.

I agree. And many people "play it safe" publicly, even when they know they are being cowardly in doing so.

The other night, I was at a party, and starting talking with someone, where the conversation got onto NFL football.

I forget exactly what he said, but then he followed it up with, "Oh, and I didn't mean to speak in offensive language" or something similar.

I said, "Hey, fuck that bullshit! We need to stop with this political correct nonsense. I still call the Washington Redskins the Redskins."

He immediately said, "Oh, cool. I agree, but it seems like we need to be careful these days."

Conversation got better once he dropped the bullshit facade of self-censorship.

exactly. I doubt many of us here can be 'conditioned'.

we're contrarians🐸

I think this can happen in the conspiracy theory community as well. Lets say that someone found evidence that Q was an operation to quench the thirst of rebellion. No matter how compelling the evidence may be, many people here will stick with Q and think that it's only shills saying this. People can get caught in their ways on both sides of the aisle.