Bona fide professionals, as you say, are hardly immune to blind spots. On the contrary, these “bona fides” often carry in so many biases -- politico-economic or otherwise -- that their blind spots are more glaring than most. You’re a case in point, though, to be fair, if I may speak candidly, I don’t know that I’d ever regard you as any kind of “bona fide professional.”

I hope you won't mind if I share with you a particularly noteworthy example of bona fide stupidity, from quite recently:

"That’s a really good point…. I don’t really have a firm answer for you on that.”

-- Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci, in response to a direct question asked of him about why people who’ve had Covid already are nonetheless being required to vaccinate, even though they’re likely more protected than vaccinated people.