[notabee]

I feel like the Dunning-Kruger effect plays a big part in the problem. Many people feel an illusory confidence in their capacity to understand a problem domain, whether they are in the role of the rebellious person or the law enforcer. Consensus with group wisdom outside of that hierarchical dynamic seems like one of the best protections against foolish rebellions or foolish rigidity, but that still leaves the problem case of what to do when the larger group wisdom is not correct. That's going to be the rarer case by definition considering how badly people tend to be at rating their own knowledge, but we also depend on those rare, capable individuals to overturn established wisdom. Or as put more succinctly by George Bernard Shaw,

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."