To a great extent, I see people formally arguing well (or, at the very least, trying to signal that they are arguing well) but so many argue for absurd propositions and hellish conclusions.

Much of my thought over the last couple of years centers on how much of our rationalist skills are honed around developing resistance strategies.

I believe that we have far more and better mental tools at our disposal for telling us that we are being rational than we actually have tools for being rational.

Maybe that is, in itself an irrational belief. It's kind of difficult to justify, but it feels correct, so I kneel doan and act as if I believe it, especially with regards to my own thought patterns.

At the very least, however, logic and rationality only operate well if we have a common set of quality premises.

So even with a good education in rhetoric we often can't get out of our heads enough to look for truth instead of seek the gratification of justifying ourselves.

Heck, my MA concentrates on rhetoric and community, and I have a hard time simply being okay when I generally agree with folks who are saying nutty things because of their poor logical skills. And so I can't really be around an environment that foments that kind of casual bad thought.