Critical Thinking... why does it matter so much?
To each of us individually, you would expect critical thinking would matter a great deal. Each of us encounters a Nigerian Prince now and then, and our financial well-being depends on our ability to detect scams. It is obviously in your own best interest to have a good way to pick out the con artists and frauds.
But what happens when the con artists run for political office? As soon as the con artist graduates to politics, now I have a problem with it. If you want to give all your money to a Nigerian Prince, I think you're a fool, but I guess that's your business. If you want to elect a Nigerian Prince to political office, now your foolishness is messing with all of us and our futures are at stake.
Think that's nonsense? (I'll specifically avoid anything I think is controversial.) Take a look at Venezuela. That is what listening to con artists can do for a nation. That's an extreme example, but subtle examples are easy to find in democracies all over the world - examples where the voting population have embraced foolish notions with potentially tragic results.
Every decision we ever make is made with the idea that we make our best guess at the outcome of that decision and try to achieve the best outcome. Internally, we build a mental model of the world, and we use that model to try to predict the outcomes of our decisions. The more accurate our mental model is, the better our decisions will be for the future. The decisions of leaders can have a tremendous impact. If those decisions are built on an incorrect model, the outcomes can be disastrous.
What does that have to do with flat earth? I am afraid I can't come up with a way to say this without offending... For centuries, the cliche for failure of critical thinking was believing the earth was flat. If someone held a foolish belief, it would be compared with believing the earth was flat.
Does believing the earth to be flat cause harm to others? If you believe in FE, it necessarily means that you reject science, objectivity, and verifiable facts. Rejection of science, objectivity, and verifiable facts leads to the election of officials who reject science, objectivity, and verifiable facts. This is absolutely NOT harmless.
I think I get it. FEs don't trust scientists. We have plenty of reasons to mistrust them. But stop and think for a moment... are you rejecting one untrustworthy source for another untrustworthy source? How do you pick whom to trust?
What does "critical thinking" even mean to you?