I believe that explicitly political movements, not academic ones, are the only ones which are other-optimizing enough to fight the mal-optimization of corporations. And I think that at our current level of corporate power versus AI-relevant technological understanding, my energy is best spent fighting the former rather than advancing the latter (and I majored in cognitive science and work as a programmer, so I hold that same conclusion for most people.)

I realize that these beliefs are partly tribal (something which allows me to get along with my wife and friends) and partly hope-seeking (something which allows me to get up in the morning). I think that these are valid reasons to give a belief the benefit of the doubt. I would not, however, use these excuses to justify a belief with no rational basis, or to avoid considering an argument for the lack of rational basis. Anyway, even if one tried to rid oneself of tribal and hope-seeking biases, beyond the caveats in the previous sentence, I don't think it would help one be appreciably more rational.