--- title: "The Age That Needs Critical Thinkers" url: https://www.localghost.ai/hard-truths/age-that-needs-critical-thinkers description: "Groupthink kept us alive, and now it's becoming a liability. AI can move what a whole group thinks, and in one study most people didn't notice the AI was biased." updated: 2026-10-21 site: LocalGhost.ai index: https://www.localghost.ai/llms.txt --- > HARD_TRUTHS // POST_21 // OCT 2026 # The Age That Needs Critical Thinkers [Vlad Cealicu](https://www.localghost.ai/about#vlad-cealicu) // 21 October 2026 > AI can move groupthink too much for us not to put everything into building our critical thinking muscle. On 20 October 2026 I was on a tour of Hohenschwangau, the castle where Ludwig II of Bavaria spent a lot of his childhood, and between rooms I was in a discussion on Reddit. Someone in r/AIDiscussion was worried we're unlearning how to solve small problems on our own, and said their mum, who has taught teenagers for twenty-five years, sees most of her students take whatever AI tells them without thinking twice. I was arguing the other side, that LLMs are the best abstraction layer we've built yet and that we said the same about Google and Stack Overflow. I realised two things at the same time, one that critical thinking is something I take for granted, and two that Neuschwanstein, on the hill above, wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the vision and ambition of one person (albeit with a lot of power and money) [1]. It's a castle built out of sheer passion, and AI is slowly taking the passion out of a lot of human work. I think if we had a bit more critical thinking we'd be a lot more flexible, and we'd absorb what comes next more easily. Maybe I can make a small difference by writing about what I think is next in tech and how we deal with AI. If I had to date the age that needs critical thinkers, it would be 14 September 2012, the day Facebook passed a billion people a month and a huge part of the world started getting its news, its jokes and its opinions from the same few feeds [2]. Fourteen years later we're officially in it, because Merriam-Webster made slop its word of the year for 2025 [3]. We need to step up to the challenge as a society before it's too late, and it's already getting late. ## 1. Groupthink kept us alive We get a lot of slop and a lot of groupthink, and for most of our history I think groupthink kept us alive. Going along with the group was the safe bet, and doing what everyone else did got a lot of us through. The word is younger than you'd think. William H. Whyte coined it in Fortune in March 1952 and called it "a rationalized conformity" [4]. Now it's becoming a liability that could lead to our demise. A group that thinks the same way can be steered the same way, all at once, and with AI sitting next to so many of us while we write and decide, the steering got a whole lot easier. ## 2. AI can move the group In 2023 Maurice Jakesch and his colleagues at Cornell had more than 1,500 people write a paragraph on whether social media is good for society, some on their own and some with an AI writing assistant set up to hold an opinion. The people writing with the opinionated assistant were about twice as likely to write paragraphs that agreed with it, they were more likely to say they held its view in a survey afterwards, and most of them didn't notice the AI was biased at all [5]. One of the authors said co-writing "doesn't really feel like I'm being persuaded". In 2025 Hao-Ping Lee and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon and Microsoft Research asked 319 knowledge workers about 936 times they'd used generative AI at work. The more people trusted the AI, the less critical thinking they reported doing, and the people who were more confident in themselves reported thinking harder [6]. AI can move groupthink too much for us not to put everything into building our critical thinking muscle. If a few models lean one way and the people using them don't push back, the whole group leans with them, and it doesn't feel like anything is happening. (I wrote about the one-person version of this in [How to Prevent Building Your Own Dictator Brain](https://www.localghost.ai/hard-truths/dictator-brain).) ## 3. We've seen what happens We've seen how easily a population with low critical thinking can be exploited by foreign actors. In Romania, where I grew up, the Constitutional Court annulled the first round of the presidential election on 6 December 2024. Two days earlier the president had declassified files from four state agencies describing a campaign of thousands of social media accounts on TikTok and Telegram pushing one candidate, which they said bore the hallmarks of a state actor, widely read as Russia [7]. Later that month Romania's tax authority found that the National Liberal Party, a Romanian party, had paid for a TikTok campaign that ended up being hijacked to promote the same candidate [8]. In the 2021 Media Literacy Index, Romania came 28th of 35 European countries [9]. I think that's because communism, and the education system I grew up in, hated critical thinking and actively discouraged it. Finland went the other way. It wrote a national media literacy policy in 2013, teaches it across subjects from early childhood to upper secondary school, and has come first in Europe in that index every year since it started in 2017 [10]. If a country wants to fight foreign actors, I think that's how, by turning its citizens into critical thinkers. Teaching it works, even in small doses. In 2020 Andrew Guess and colleagues showed people in the US and India Facebook's tips for spotting false news, once, and their ability to tell mainstream headlines from false ones went up by 26.5% in the US and 17.5% in a well-educated online sample in India (a rural sample there showed no effect) [11]. It faded over the following weeks and the authors said it needs regular reinforcement, which is why I keep calling it a muscle. ## 4. Critical thinking used to cost a lot of money For most of history critical thinking was something you paid a lot of money for, and it was available to the elite. The liberal arts got their name because they were the subjects worthy of a free man, set against the servile or mechanical ones, and for a long time they were "the education designed for a gentleman" [12]. When we needed education updated to get more productive, we updated it. In England the industrialists' view that "mass education was vital to the nation's ability to maintain its lead in manufacture" helped carry the Elementary Education Act of 1870 through Parliament, and by 1880 school was compulsory from five to ten [13]. We built schools for everyone largely because we needed people who could work in the factories. This time it's about surviving, and we need critical thinking for everyone. It's scary for governments and companies to rebuild education around critical thinking, because critical thinkers are harder to fool and harder to control. We have to trust that our fellow humans want what's best for all of us, and become critical thinkers anyway. ## 5. Museums The castle I was touring when this started is a museum now, and I think museums are where a lot of people can get what higher education gives you, critical thinking included, without paying a lot of money for it. School mostly teaches subjects one at a time, history in one room and science in another, and doesn't always show you how they connect. A museum teaches you across subjects without calling it that, each room giving you the context for the next. You can't do the British Museum in one afternoon, it's a multi-day affair, and I think you learn more in a week there than in a few months at school. Learning across subjects is what gives you context, and context matters in critical thinking, because a claim you can place in history, in science and in somebody's life is a lot harder to fool you with. The British Museum was set up that way from the start. Hans Sloane's collection had more than 80,000 natural and artificial "rarities", over 40,000 books and manuscripts and 32,000 coins and medals, and the 1753 Act that created the museum said it was for "all studious and curious persons", even if for the first years you needed a ticket and the right connections to get in [14]. Since 1 December 2001 every national museum sponsored by the UK culture department has been free to enter, and by 2010/11 visits to the ones that used to charge had gone up by 151% in London and 148% outside it [15]. In September 2026 the government ruled out charging overseas visitors at England's national museums, with the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, saying they "must be free, forever, for everyone to access" [16]. Even so, in the year to March 2026, 53% of people in England in managerial and professional jobs went to a museum or gallery, against 32% of people in routine and manual jobs [17]. Keeping them free in the UK, and making them free everywhere else, is part of how we build a society of critical thinkers. ## 6. What I mean by critical thinking Higher education isn't the only way to get there, and a lot of critical thinking comes from experience. Wherever it comes from, this is what I mean by it. It starts with asking why, five times at least. Kids do it, and we do it when we debug software (Toyota made a method out of it decades ago [18]). It means seeing when a thread of valid and observable statements makes a leap and adds something that feels like part of the same idea but is only there to influence you. When you spot the leap, do what Socrates did and keep asking simple questions about the claim until it either holds up or the contradictions come out, and accept that sometimes the contradictions are in your own answers [19]. It means being able to hold contradicting theories in your head at the same time, which Fitzgerald called the test of a first-rate intelligence [20], and changing your leaning based on the evidence. Critical thinking doesn't mean conspiracy theories. It means accepting that it's almost impossible for aliens not to exist, while reserving judgement on whether we've seen them until there's proof that can't be refuted. It means being able to generalise while treating each event on its own context and outcome, and understanding risk and being willing to take it when the rewards outweigh it. It means accepting that the vast majority of people behave the way they do because that's what they think is best for them, their family and their community. Almost nobody wakes up in the morning thinking "how can I be evil today". Critical thinking doesn't mean not respecting rules. It means obey, but challenge the ones that seem stupid, and you'll either learn something along the way or get the person applying the rule to consider the alternative. It means challenging authority when it oversteps, and calling out BS when you see it instead of staying silent. It isn't something you learn once and then have. You exercise it every day, and it's part of what makes you human. ## 7. What I don't know yet I don't know yet what this looks like in every classroom past what Finland already does, and I don't know how you teach it to the adults who left school before any of this started, which is most of us. I do think we need to turn our society from mostly followers into mostly critical thinkers if we're going to stay relevant next to AI. --- Neuschwanstein is still on that hill because of one person's vision and ambition. AI will keep taking the passion out of a lot of the work we do, and I think a bit more critical thinking can point that passion in the right direction. If you think I've got it wrong, the [Reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/AIDiscussion/comments/1xb769a/) where this started is a good place to tell me, and the next post is about what I think a critical thinker needs to stand on. [[ localghost.ai // hard-truths ]] ## REFERENCES **[1]** Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung, "Neuschwanstein Castle, Building History", and Wikipedia, "Neuschwanstein Castle". Source for the foundation stone laid on 5 September 1869, Ludwig II paying for it out of his personal fortune and extensive borrowing rather than Bavarian public funds, Ludwig only ever seeing it as a building site before his death in 1886, and Hohenschwangau as the family's summer residence where he spent a large part of his childhood. [neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/history.htm](https://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/history.htm) and [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle). **[2]** Christian Science Monitor, 4 October 2012, "Facebook, 1 billion monthly users and counting". Source for Facebook passing 1 billion monthly active users on 14 September 2012 and announcing it on 4 October 2012. [csmonitor.com](https://csmonitor.com/Technology/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1004/Facebook-1-billion-monthly-users-and-counting). **[3]** Associated Press via KFVS12, 15 December 2025, "Merriam-Webster's 2025 word of the year is 'slop'". Source for slop as Merriam-Webster's 2025 word of the year and its definition. [kfvs12.com](https://www.kfvs12.com/2025/12/15/merriam-websters-2025-word-year-is-slop-heres-why). **[4]** William H. Whyte Jr., Fortune, March 1952, "Groupthink", republished by Fortune on 22 July 2012. Source for the coinage of groupthink in March 1952 and the definition "a rationalized conformity". [fortune.com/2012/07/22/groupthink-fortune-1952](https://fortune.com/2012/07/22/groupthink-fortune-1952). **[5]** Cornell Chronicle, 2023, "Writing with AI help can shift your opinions", on Maurice Jakesch, Advait Bhat, Daniel Buschek, Lior Zalmanson and Mor Naaman, "Co-Writing with Opinionated Language Models Affects Users' Views", CHI 2023. Source for more than 1,500 participants, writers with an opinionated assistant being about twice as likely to agree with it and more likely to hold its view afterwards, most not noticing the bias, and Mor Naaman's quote. [news.cornell.edu/node/326526](https://news.cornell.edu/node/326526). **[6]** Hao-Ping Lee (Carnegie Mellon), Advait Sarkar, Lev Tankelevitch, Ian Drosos, Sean Rintel, Richard Banks and Nicholas Wilson, "The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking", CHI 2025, Microsoft Research. Source for the survey of 319 knowledge workers and 936 examples, and for higher confidence in generative AI going with less self-reported critical thinking and higher self-confidence with more, which the authors describe as correlations. [advait.org/files/lee_2025_ai_critical_thinking_survey.pdf](https://advait.org/files/lee_2025_ai_critical_thinking_survey.pdf). **[7]** PBS NewsHour, 6 December 2024, "Top court annuls Romania's first round of presidential voting". Source for the annulment on 6 December 2024, the files declassified on 4 December from four Romanian agencies, and the campaign of thousands of social media accounts on TikTok and Telegram that the files described as the work of a state actor, widely reported as Russia. [pbs.org](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/top-court-annuls-romanias-first-round-of-presidential-voting). **[8]** Euronews, 23 December 2024, "Romanian centre-right party's TikTok campaign used for far-right win, report", on reporting by Snoop.ro and a finding by Romania's tax authority, ANAF. Source for the National Liberal Party paying, through an agency, for a TikTok campaign that was hijacked to promote Călin Georgescu. Wikipedia's "Accusations of Russian interference in the 2024 Romanian presidential election" covers both readings. [euronews.com](https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/12/23/romanian-centre-right-partys-tiktok-campaign-used-for-far-right-win-report). **[9]** Edupedu.ro, on the Media Literacy Index 2021 by the Open Society Institute in Sofia. Source for Romania ranking 28th of 35 European countries. [edupedu.ro](https://www.edupedu.ro/nivelul-si-calitatea-educatiei-trag-in-jos-capacitatea-romanilor-de-a-rezista-la-dezinformare-romania-spre-coada-clasamentului-european-de-media-literacy-studiu/amp/). **[10]** AFP via Malay Mail, 3 January 2025, "In Finland, students learn how to identify online hoaxes, become media-savvy citizens". Source for Finland's first national media literacy policy in 2013, its 2019 update covering early childhood to upper secondary education, and Finland ranking first in the European Media Literacy Index every year since 2017. [malaymail.com](https://malaymail.com/news/life/2025/01/03/in-finland-students-learn-how-to-identify-online-hoaxes-become-media-savvy-citizens/161852). **[11]** Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, on Andrew Guess and colleagues, "A digital media literacy intervention increases discernment between mainstream and false news in the United States and India", PNAS, 2020. Source for the improvements of 26.5% in the US and 17.5% in a highly educated online sample in India, no effect in a rural Indian sample, and the effect fading over time. [spia.princeton.edu](https://spia.princeton.edu/news/simple-interventions-can-help-people-spot-false-headlines). **[12]** Online Etymology Dictionary, "liberal arts". Source for the artes liberales as the subjects worthy of a free man, opposed to servile or mechanical ones, and Fowler's "the education designed for a gentleman". [etymonline.com/word/liberal%20arts](https://www.etymonline.com/word/liberal%20arts). **[13]** UK Parliament, Living Heritage, "The 1870 Education Act". Source for the industrialists' view that "mass education was vital to the nation's ability to maintain its lead in manufacture" carrying weight in Parliament, and the 1880 Act making attendance compulsory from five to ten. [parliament.uk](https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/livinglearning/school/overview/1870educationact/). **[14]** The British Museum, "History". Source for the 1753 Act creating the museum for "all studious and curious persons", its opening in 1759 with tickets and entry limited at first to well-connected people, and Hans Sloane's collection of more than 80,000 natural and artificial rarities, over 40,000 books and manuscripts and 32,000 coins and medals. [britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/history](https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/history). **[15]** UK Government, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, "Ten years of free museums", December 2011. Source for free entry to DCMS-sponsored national museums from 1 December 2001 (for children from April 1999), and visits to the formerly charging museums rising 151% in London and 148% outside London between 2000-01 and 2010/11. [gov.uk/government/news/ten-years-of-free-museums--2](https://gov.uk/government/news/ten-years-of-free-museums--2). **[16]** Museums Association, Museums Journal, September 2026, "Free forever, government rules out entry charges for overseas visitors to national museums". Source for Lisa Nandy ruling out charges for overseas visitors on 28 September 2026, at a Tate Liverpool event during the Labour conference (the Museums Journal article ran the next day; The Art Newspaper also covered it at theartnewspaper.com/2026/09/28/free-admission-nationla-museums-england-lisa-nandy-confirmed), and her words "free, forever, for everyone to access". [museumsassociation.org](https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2026/09/free-forever-government-rules-out-entry-charges-for-overseas-visitors-to-national-museums/). **[17]** UK Government, "Community and Engagement Survey 2025/26, museums and galleries report", published 14 August 2026, covering April 2025 to March 2026. Source for 42% of adults in England visiting a museum or gallery in the last twelve months, and 53% of people in higher managerial, administrative and professional occupations against 32% in routine and manual occupations. [gov.uk](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-and-engagement-survey-202526-museums-and-galleries/community-and-engagement-survey-202526-museums-and-galleries-report). **[18]** Taiichi Ohno, 1978 (English edition 1988), "Toyota Production System, Beyond Large-Scale Production", as cited by Wikipedia's "Five whys". Source for the five whys being developed at Toyota and Ohno calling repeating why five times the basis of Toyota's scientific approach. [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_whys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_whys). **[19]** Conversational Leadership, "Socratic Elenchus". Source for the elenchus as the questioning Socrates used to test a claim, a series of simple questions that bring out contradictions until the claim is conceded or holds, often ending in puzzlement about the limits of one's own understanding. [conversational-leadership.net/socratic-elenchus](https://conversational-leadership.net/socratic-elenchus/). **[20]** F. Scott Fitzgerald, Esquire, February 1936, "The Crack-Up", as traced by Quote Investigator. Source for "the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time". [quoteinvestigator.com/2020/01/05/intelligence](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/01/05/intelligence/). --- Cite this page as https://www.localghost.ai/hard-truths/age-that-needs-critical-thinkers. Facts about LocalGhost are kept current at https://www.localghost.ai/about, and the index of the whole site for language models is https://www.localghost.ai/llms.txt.