Reply to Do you have a "Naomi Wolf" in your life?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I know a few people who turned out this way, including my ex.  All very smart and well educated.

There are two common traits that I can point to.  One is a very black and white thinking, no grey whatsoever.  E.g., if you can’t give a 100% guarantee that X is safe, it means that X is unsafe, and how dare you?  The other is that they ARE probably smarter than an average person and they have an independent streak which leads them to center their identity around “not being a sheep” and believe they can “do their own research”, etc.

Add the internet echo chambers in the mix, and there you go.  [/quote]

Correct. I would add a certain type of autism to the mix: Autism increases the risk of paranoia, because of that rigid thinking (what PP calls black and white), anxiety an tendency to over-react, since they don't know what a socially-appropriate proportional response looks like. Not all autistic people develop this - my son is not like this at all. My husband sometimes has a mild version, when he's angry, of thinking everyone is out to get him, but nothing specific as yet. I hope he never reaches that stage. Both are high-functioning autistic.

I have an aunt who was a full-blown conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer, well before Covid. She was considered the most intelligent of her family as a child. I think she was indeed someone who thought outside the box, and who relished being anti-establishment. Sadly, she died of Covid, after refusing to get vaccinated and declining an ambulance to go to the hospital when she fell ill and things were not looking good.
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