Interesting couple of articles.

I have to say that I must be an extreme outlier in everything. I also don't believe for one minute that empathy or a lack of critical thinking has anything to do with our current situation.

For the record, I was privileged in my youth, I suppose, privately educated, etc. I am 70 years old. I supported Bernie Sanders. I have been an environmentalist since 1970 and a progressive (in the real sense of what it means) since 1966. I have never had any self-interest, and I doubt I have any barnacles growing anywhere.

I think the real issue is indoctrination and socialisation from an early age to believe bullarkey like the pursuit of happiness, individualism, and the lack of factual information taught to Americans at their schools.

I was shocked when I went to college in America in my mid-50s. I was being taught information that I was taught in the late 50s and early 60s in junior school (ages 7 to 12) in South Africa. What's worse, the emphasis was on getting everyone to have an opinion, and not being factual in telling people blatantly upfront that they were talking nonsense.

If I have a high level of rationality, it was from a classical education that didn't think that giving people 'high self-esteem' made them more intelligent. It was from rote learning quite an extensive degree of information, and then learning to draw conclusions in a rational, objective way from that information.