Pandering to the over-estimated intelligence of contrarians is the problem. People who self-describe as contrarians, independents, or skeptics are consistently associated with lower education, lower information, and lower analytical skills than others without these self descriptions. This extends to politics where people who say they are moderates or independents also have these markers of lower information compared to people who will describe themselves as having a position, no matter what side that position is on. But in popular communications we have for some reason decided to exalt and praise the skeptic and the independent.