This is pretty much what I was getting at. You can believe whatever you want, but, if you are discussing or debating its merits, you have to be able to prove that your opinion is valid. That's one of the bases of philosophy. And you have to do it without logical fallacy.

The problem is that, for a significant part if the US, their capacity to utilize logic is faulty. All they have is fallacies. They rely on demagogues and grifters to do it badly for them. It's because they don't care about what's true, which makes them directly opposed to philosophy, they care about winning or being right, even if they are blatantly wrong. If critical thinking helped them, they wouldn't try so hard to expel it from school, politics, and everyday society.