We don’t pay nearly enough attention to how flawed we are as a species, how easily we can discard reason and logic to validate feelings of fear, insecurity or shame, which is what drives conservatism, not reasoned arguments or fiscal responsibility.

When you discover in life that your brain does that trick, where it will ruminate on the things you feel and it’s not required at all to make sense or figure out things with logic, you can become free from at least one of your major flaws, which is how we tend to justify our feelings with irrational rumination. Learning to stop telling yourself stories will save your mental health. Smart people sometimes have as hard of a time as stupid people in this regard, because a smart person is equally likely to think their own rumination is factual and reasonable and are less likely to be self-critical.