What you know that ain't so

For clarity, let me point out that the title of this post refers to a Mark Twain quote: "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

This phenomenon sounds to me like what makes the setup for a financial bubble. People are so sure that one (or more) assumptions hold that they ignore all the signs that they're wrong. Maybe "The Semmelweiss Effect" is what you had in mind regarding a standard name? From Wikipedia: The Semmelweis reflex or "Semmelweis effect" is a metaphor for the reflex-like tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts established norms, beliefs or paradigms.

This is an analysis of the Six Day War (Egypt vs. Israel, 1967)-- the Israelis were interested in how Egypt managed a surprise attack, and it turned out that too many Israelis believed that the Egyptians would only attack if they had rockets which could reach deep into Israel.

I believe they are actually talking about the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The Six Day War was a (highly successful) Israeli strike.

From the article:

the failure to look rightward and see rational people.

This effect was reproduced in studies by Jonathan Haidt. Liberals don't mimic conservative ideology as well as conservatives can mimic liberal arguments. They just can't see the reasons, and tend to attribute differences to malice.

"Politics is the mind-killer" is still true as ever, and I fear that the linked article may be suffering from this. For instance, breathless statements like:

After replacing condescension with conversation, the left could then present a plan that was actionable and concrete. Instead of trying to square the circle by promising to keep the settlements and bring peace and maintain security and foster goodwill all at the same time, it should be blunt about what it really believes.

seem to imply a kind of 'us vs. them' mentality where the left is a coherent body with a uniform set of beliefs. And statements lacking evidence, like:

They remain unconvinced because they see those ghoulish ISIL videos and they know that it’s only a matter of time before the turmoil spreading everywhere from Libya to Syria knocks at their door.

presume voter intentions and have no basis in what is known about ISIS. The article is mostly statements like this, so I won't bother quoting all of them.

There are plenty of good, rational, evidence-based articles on movements of public opinion. I'm curious as to why you decided to link this one instead.

It's not about the Six Day War. It talks about the Yom Kippur War (1973).

Sounds like a form of abduction, or, more precisely, failure to consider alternative hypotheses.

I tried to answer the title and realized I have hardly any fixed beliefs, because I flip-flopped all over the terrain, went left from right and halfway back, atheist, spiritual, better atheist, intellectual, intellectual-hating masculinist, halfway back, and so on.

This may sound like an awesome accidental rationalist virtue but I can tell you, it takes a toil on well-being. No fixed beliefs means no strong emotions and no values and no goals. Depressing.

At this point I would be glad to have any wrong faulty biased fixed belief just to have that feeling when people chase something shiny. Or fight against something they hate. At any rate it energizes them, while lacking it is enervating.

Given enough eyeballs, all Easter Eggs are exposed (Linus's Law). A correct explanation is like an Easter Egg. What prevents Easter Eggs from being found for a long time? You have too few kids looking for them.

The Israeli government did not and still does not allow its citizens to shop in the public sector. This means that there are very few eyes on the lookout for Easter Eggs. It stands to reason that Israel would increase its chances of finding Easter Eggs by allowing all its citizens to shop for themselves in the public sector. But there are Jews all over the world. So Israel should allow everybody and anybody to shop in its public sector.

Cthulhu may swim slowly. But he only swims left.

I assume the mistake was assuming Cthulhu was swimming faster. AFAIK no one disputes the only swims left part.