Smart People are Politically Neutral | The Cult of Politics

In an era defined by polarization, tribalism has become the new religion. People are no longer simply left-leaning or right-leaning—they are all-in, baptized into political identities with the same fervor once reserved for gods and gurus. But in this fervor lies a trap. Becoming a radical or emotionally attached member of any political party—left or right—cripples independent thinking. It seduces even intelligent people into abandoning objectivity, nuance, and reason in favor of loyalty, groupthink, and echo chambers.

At its core, this is not a political issue—it is a psychological and spiritual one. To understand how political extremes reduce critical thinking, we need to peel back the layers of human behavior and examine the mechanics of belief, bias, and identity.

The Seduction of Certainty

Humans crave certainty. In an unpredictable world, aligning with a political movement offers the illusion of control and clarity. Suddenly, complex issues seem simple. There’s a “right side” and a “wrong side,” a “good team” and a “bad team.” It feels safe.

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This mirrors religion, where sacred texts, doctrines, and leaders provide an absolute framework for understanding the world. Cults take this even further—demanding total allegiance, punishing doubt, and offering community in exchange for unquestioning faith.

The same thing happens when someone becomes a hardliner on the left or right. Instead of asking, “What’s the truth?”, they ask, “What does my side believe?” Facts are no longer evaluated on their own merit—they are filtered through the lens of the tribe. Once that lens is in place, truth becomes distorted, and the capacity for objective thought dies a slow, silent death.

Emotional Attachment Hijacks the Mind

Emotion is a powerful drug. The more emotionally reactive someone becomes to a political party—especially in hatred or idolization—the more their rational mind is compromised. Neuroscience confirms this: heightened emotion activates the limbic system, reducing activity in the prefrontal cortex, the area responsible for reasoning and critical thinking.

If you hate a party, you will unconsciously seek information that confirms your hate. If you idolize your party, you will dismiss any facts that tarnish its image. This is not intelligence. It’s cognitive distortion.

Hatred, fear, and tribal loyalty blur the line between fact and fiction. People begin to treat political figures like saviors or demons, policies like holy commandments, and dissent like heresy. In this environment, nuance becomes a threat, and disagreement is seen as betrayal.

Group Identity Overrides Individual Judgment

Humans are social creatures. Belonging to a group provides safety, validation, and purpose. But it also comes at a cost: the loss of independent thought.

Psychological studies have repeatedly shown that when people identify strongly with a group, they are more likely to:

• Conform to the group’s beliefs, even when they contradict evidence.

• View outsiders as enemies or threats.

• Rationalize or ignore the group’s failures.

• Experience discomfort (cognitive dissonance) when confronted with contradictory information.

The stronger the political identity, the more these distortions apply. Like a cult member defending the guru's abuses or a religious zealot explaining away contradictions in scripture, the partisan mind protects the group at all costs. And this means truth must be sacrificed for the comfort of belonging.

Media Echo Chambers Feed the Addiction

In the past, people got their information from relatively neutral sources. Today, algorithms and cable news have created echo chambers—digital cults where people only hear what they already believe.

This isn’t just a passive effect. These systems are designed to feed your bias, provoke your emotion, and reinforce your identity. The more extreme your views, the more engagement you produce. This keeps you clicking, sharing, and returning—ensnared in a loop of outrage and affirmation.

Intelligence does not protect against this. In fact, smart people can be better at rationalizing bad ideas because they are more skilled at constructing arguments to defend their biases. Intelligence without self-awareness becomes a tool for self-deception.

The Power of Neutrality

Remaining neutral is not apathy—it is power. It means retaining the ability to listen to both sides, to judge each issue on its own merits, and to resist emotional manipulation. It means being courageous enough to say, “I don’t know,” or “I disagree with both.”

Neutrality is the space where critical thinking thrives. It allows you to ask better questions, challenge your assumptions, and refine your understanding. It means your allegiance is not to a party, but to truth itself—even when that truth is uncomfortable.

Neutral people are not easily manipulated. They are not provoked into rage by headlines or swayed by charismatic leaders. They think for themselves—and that is dangerous to any system built on control.

The Cult of the Party Must Be Broken

To be fully human is to be sovereign in thought and conscience. When you hand that over to a political ideology—left or right—you reduce yourself to a pawn. The party becomes your god. Its slogans become your scriptures. Its enemies become your demons. And your mind, once capable of nuance and wonder, becomes a repeating program.

This is the real tragedy of modern politics: not the existence of conflict, but the extinction of independent thought in the name of loyalty.

Smart People Stay Awake

If you care about truth, don’t become a disciple. Don’t chant slogans. Don’t worship leaders. Don’t build your identity around parties or ideologies. Stay awake.

Criticize both sides when they deserve it. Praise good ideas wherever they come from. Be skeptical of easy answers, emotional appeals, and groupthink. Stay fluid, open, and alert.

In a world addicted to polarization, neutrality is radical. Objectivity is rebellious. Independent thought is revolutionary.

And the future belongs to those who can still think for themselves.