Disagreeing with Authority

I started thinking and disagreeing with authority at first.

But, after ~fifty years of thinking, observation, and study, I have come to the conclusion that if the 'authority' is a politician, a bureaucrat paid by the government, an academic subsidized by the government, a scientist, or 'health expert' funded by the government, or a report from a sleazy corporate Junk News outfit, you can pretty much skip the thinking part and reject authority with a 90% chance of having made the correct choice.

I believe this is a natural human response. Think of all the people you have known, or been acquainted with, over your lifetime who are unrepentant thieves, liars, scumbags, sleazeballs, opportunists, sociopaths, and mooches. Maybe you are lucky and don't know many. I drove a taxi over a span of forty years, so there's that. How much 'thinking' do you still have to do when one of them asks to borrow money or makes some purportedly honest declaration, like 'trust me' before you reject THEM?

When I went to public school in the 1960s, there were two awards handed out at the end of each school year - scholarship awards for academic achievement, and citizenship awards for nodding dog acquiescence.

I received five or six scholarship awards but not one citizenship award. And I am proud of that.