The brighter you are, the more you become aware that your mind can construct arguments for any point of view, which ends up devaluing all of them. The net effect is to end up not feeling bright at all, or rather, as if one is simply a very bright monkey. Which is probably true.
On the other hand, the simpler one is, the easier it becomes to see the world in black and white, with an easy “right or wrong” solution, thus reinforcing one’s absolute belief that they are indeed correct. The end result of this kind of thinking (which of course isn’t really thinking at all) is to feel quite smart.
One doesn’t have to look too hard to see this playing out in social media. Like everywhere. There’s a very dark irony here, no?