I feel like theres a "clever spiral" where witty and observant people become addicted to the praise and attention they get from seeing through the bullshit and pointing out overlooked thruthisms.

The trouble is, clever isn't the same as informed. It takes effort to be informed, to be educated, and it's pretty easy to spot flaws in other people's logic. It's subtly tempting to slide from "I think we should rethink the way we treat each other," to "Maybe there is a government conspiracy to inject mind control via vaccines."

Because the world is fucked up, and the vast majority of people take too much for granted. They live unexamined lives, and a person can come along and hold up a mirror for laugh and profit. Eventually, though, the observant ones run out of low hanging fruit, and if they want to stay relevant, they either need to put in some effort or start making shit up.