I think that’s a different discussion.m. We can make excuses all day for how people end up with extreme views. It doesn’t change anything. The reason it occurs is part of human nature, a weakness that one has to choose to overcome on a daily basis or not. Choosing wrong too often and there might be no way back.

I find this most evident in people who suddenly shift right when they end up in some sex scandal, they move towards the group that is most forgiving of such events and lose themselves in the shift. Russel Brand and Musk are two examples.

Knowledge seeking for the sake of knowledge seeking is something totally different. It requires accepting one knows nothing and despite all the knowledge gather now knows less. It requires a humility that can be uncomfortable.

Few end up adding significant new knowledge. Those who do maintain a humbleness as the recognize the efforts who came before them.

Those who pretend become exploiters, it takes little effort to reveal their search was only ever for loopholes. Those people are another form of extremist.