shkoyach r noach

That’s a really interesting take, especially the idea of “epistemic dependency.” I agree that blindly deferring to authority can shut down critical thinking and make people accept claims without really understanding them.
At the same time, I think there’s a balance to strike. In a lot of areas—like science or medicine—we kind of have to rely on experts because we can’t personally verify everything. So the issue isn’t authority itself, but when it replaces reasoning instead of guiding it.
I also liked your point about how this can lead to long-term errors sticking around. It makes me wonder how many ideas today are accepted more because of who says them rather than how strong the evidence actually is.
Overall, I think you’re right that people need to stay mentally active and question things more, even when the source seems credible.

@smerel. Your not chapping the Lumdus of the kashya