Yep: these times of fake news flying around are going to be tough times. We're going back to the days when naive people have to watch themselves more closely to avoid being gullible. Interestingly, we're coalescing more and more into "tribes" with shared beliefs.

You need to not SHUT DOWN, and work off of preconceptions. This I know is easier said than done.

One of the reasons it's difficult: getting good at this art makes you the type of person who "stands for nothing" and therefore "will fall for anything." Part of living in this age of fake news, an age where we'd be wise to be cagey, is to get as much truth without shucking off our ideals and beliefs.

Suffice it to say that you're in a good spot if your beliefs are either close to human-nature realistic or else flatly unfalsifiable. People with unrealistic beliefs that are also falsifiable are going to have a hard time unless they insulate themselves in echo chambers (like the progs have done.)

thus choosing to close their ears and go NAH NAH NAH

Well...if you bump into one of those characters, consider shoooting this back to them:

:D