PHILOSOPHY

There is a well known technique of making one feel guilty. It's done via telling a story of some relatively decent person who somehow, accidentally, or due to a greed, or a rookie mistake, did/said/saw/took/ignored/bought/ate something that got him into SERIOUS trouble, which he totally deserved. There is a popular ancient book of such stories, religious people love it.

There is also a way to make one feel stupid. There are special books for that as well. They are thick, referenced by many other books, well known: Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Marx, etc. They are selling quite simple ideas but require you to read at least 100 pages to get to know that 2 multiplied by 2 most likely will yield 4. Somehow they just can't deliver same message directly. Why? Because it's easy to argue with a lie that's directly expressed in a simple understandable form. Yet if a lie is "proven" via 100 pages you will, at some page X, forget some of the arguments or facts or relationships between them. This is inevitable since your brain will be overloaded with complex information. Once you forgot some parts of the complex abstract construct designed by the author, you will accept the pseudo-correct conclusion he made. The conclusion will be correct according to what you do remember from last few pages yet it will contradict the stuff that you forgot. To gain your trust the author will tell you some easy/understandable/exciting/pleasant truths. Some of it is really interesting and useful. The lies will happen farther down the road. It's an intellectual trap. That's why if you see an explanation that is too long, rest assured you are being sold a lie:

Socialist/communist leadership used Karl Marx to explain anything. If that wasn't enough there were writings of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, etc. Do you disagree with the party opinion? Well, have you read the Great Books we quote here? No? Well, go and read them first, and you will get it. If you try to read the Great Books you will fail to understand, guaranteed. You will also get bored. Tired. You will try read them next day. Same failure to understand the absurd. If you come back saying the Great Books are wrong you will be discarded as stupid by all those educated people that claim they did understand, and you can't really argue, because you can't even remember 100 pages of "arguments" you have to argue with. If, god forbid, you do think you understood them too, you are missing something, you felt into the trap. If you insist they are wrong, they will advise you to read the book again, until you are tired again. At some point you either accept possibility that you are stupid or give up.

Same method can employ not just some famous book but any complex set of abstract scientific theories, formulas, charts, tables, etc. As long as there is enough complex information your brain will fail to grasp all of it. That's how quantum physics, quantum computers, astrophysics, global warming, financial investment advice and similar super-clever B.S. (aka pseudo-science) is being sold to public. When it comes to "humanitarian sciences" the B.S. is not even super-clever, it usually is not even clever at all. They compensate by increasing the volume of it.

People who claim they "get it", - professors, experts, coaches, speakers, leaders, politicians, - exist for this very reason: to make you agree, feel stupid or give up. That's what they are paid for, it's their job description. It's not a conspiracy, it's government sponsored sects. Most of them do know 0-worth of what they preach and are grateful guards of the sect: an intellectual police of a sort. If you believe into their sophisticated B.S. strong enough to learn it and do the same, you can join. Each of such doctrines include some OBVIOUSLY absurd ideas, on purpose. Marx fan has to accept "dialectic materialism", physicist - "relativity theory", historian - "ancient civilizations", etc. This is a filter to get rid of any sect member with ability to think independently and not willing to lie.

Similar principle guards the overpriced "hard to get" things that people pursue in life. The more frustrating product is, the less it's worth the price, the more hoops you have to jump through to get it. The "hoops" are the "100 pages of proof" that you need it, no matter what. The "pages" overload you brain with information, the "hoops" overload it with feelings. Feelings will make you value the prize, since your brain, from all that effort you made, is mentally invested. It will automatically suppress the negative thoughts about the object that it was trained to desire so hard. "To be one of us you have to ...", "to gain my trust you must ...", "all the normal people do ...". Socialization rituals exist for that very reason.