Yesterday I noted that I have two rules of thumb for accepting something as true. The first is that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The second is a milder form of "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
In fact, whenever a belief confirms my priors or just happens to come out the way I want it to, I try to raise my skepticism shields. It can be hard to notice when I am tempted to accept a belief too quickly because I already agree with its implications, but I try.
I find this sort of skepticism really hard to maintain. When I notice I'm accepting an idea without proper reflection I do okay, but I suspect a lot of things slip by my defenses. This is just one of the reasons I value having reasonable friends with divergent political beliefs -- even if we'll never agree, they often form a bulwark against brainwashing myself.
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