How the Mind Abandons Logic: A Day in Delusion
Yesterday offered a disturbing glimpse into the fragile boundary between reason and belief. Kadizzle, wandering through the small absurdities of daily life, had two encounters that perfectly illustrated how logic can be casually discarded like an old shoe — first with two clean-cut Mormon missionaries, and then with a MAGA loyalist wrapped tightly in the Trump cult. In both cases, the same question haunted the experience: How does the human mind — built for reason, curiosity, and critical thinking — so easily fall into myth, dogma, and delusion?
The two young Mormons were bright-eyed, polite, and earnest. Exactly the kind of young men who, under different circumstances, might be exploring physics, literature, or philosophy. But here they were — in suits, on bikes, carrying the Book of Mormon like it was a scientific textbook. Kadizzle asked if they had ever read Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer’s penetrating account of Mormonism's violent origins and the fraudulent career of Joseph Smith. Of course, they hadn’t. They can’t. That book, like so many challenges to faith, is forbidden fruit — too dangerous because it might work. It might pierce the carefully constructed illusion.
The tragedy isn't that these young men are religious — it's that they’ve been taught never to question. Critical thought is the enemy. Doubt is sin. Curiosity is temptation. Their minds have been rewired to protect the myth at all costs, even if that means quarantining logic.
Later in the day, the second encounter: a Trump supporter. Another version of the same psychological trap. Different costume, same performance. This time the sacred text isn't the Book of Mormon, but Trump's endless stream of slogans, conspiracies, and manufactured grievances. The same fierce resistance to contradictory evidence, the same hostility to questioning, the same tribal loyalty to a leader who thrives on myth-making.
What links these two encounters — and so many others in America today — is a cognitive surrender. Somewhere along the way, these individuals gave up on logic. Maybe it was fear, maybe loneliness, maybe the comforting simplicity of believing you have all the answers. Once logic becomes uncomfortable, myth offers sanctuary. And if you're told often enough that questioning is dangerous or disloyal, the very muscle of reason begins to atrophy.
Traditional religion, populist cults, conspiracy theories — they all begin the same way: Step one, abandon logic. It’s not a coincidence. These systems require submission, not understanding. Obedience, not curiosity. They offer a ready-made identity and a community that rewards belief, not evidence.
The brain is an incredible instrument — but it’s also lazy, tribal, and easily hijacked by emotional narratives. When you remove skepticism and replace it with fear, guilt, and groupthink, you no longer have a mind at work. You have a mind under occupation.
The sad part? Most people who fall into these belief systems could have been brilliant skeptics, truth-seekers, or creators. But once they’re caught in the loop — where questions are forbidden and answers are handed down — they stop seeing, stop thinking, and start parroting.
So how does the mind abandon logic? Slowly, then suddenly. It begins with trust in the wrong voice, continues with fear of dissent, and ends with a mind fully colonized by myth.
We should all be asking — not just why people abandon reason, but how to help them recover it. Because until more people snap out of their chosen fairy tales, we’re all living in someone else’s fiction.
