Is there a "New Rationalism"? CFAR or Center for Applied Rationality, LessWrong.com, etc.

From time to time the discovery is made that most people think pretty irrationally.  Often too, people have gotten the idea that some kind of new emphasis on rationality will put an end to the horrors of despotism, warfare, and much more.  Perhaps it will work out some day, but experience suggests caution, and I doubt we have seen the last of the false hopes raised by such thinking.  I don't want to attack CFAR (see below) and its siblings, but I do approach them skeptically.

Why I got started on this path (The Real Truth Project, then Truthology 101)

A "good enough" grasp of reality is necessary to our very survival.  Having an inaccurate view of reality can easily kill you. Winston Churchill was nearly killed in New York city because of a very simple misconception of reality he "knew" cars drive on the left side of the road.

Something ideological opposites can agree on

If there is one thing that people of the most opposite political opinions can agree on, it is that an alarming number of people are wrong about the plain facts regarding very important issues.

It may sound like a joke to call this a shared concern, when each side is pointing accusingly at the other's wrongheadedness, but is there any way to turn this agreement into a movement or project to raise our national "Truth Quotient"?