> EA appeals to exactly that kind of really-smart-person who is perfectly capable of convincing themselves that they're always right about everything. And from there, you can justify all kinds of terrible things.

Yup.

Which is super-ironic given the association with big-R Rationality, Less Wrong, Overcoming Bias, all of which quote Feynman saying "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool."

Now I have the mental image of the scene in The Life of Brian where the crowd mindlessly parrots Brian's call for them to think for themselves.