Threats to Rationality and the Importance of Enlightenment Ideals

Laws of logic and cause and effect must be respected in planning our lives.
Trust in communities of people who understand things beyond our experience.
Tendency to believe in stories that make our tribe look good and reinforce uplifting narratives.
Rationality tends to be confined to the here and now, but Enlightenment ideals have led to institutions that can answer bigger questions.
Threats to rationality include authoritarian-nationalist and populist-right ideologies, suppression of speech in the 'woke left', and the spread of irrational thinking with new technologies.
Institutions of rationality and truth-seeking are critical to realizing Enlightenment ideals, but must maintain credibility.
Cancel culture stifles rationality by creating a fear of punishment for dissenting beliefs, leading to pluralistic ignorance and the entrenchment of beliefs.