One of my college classmates unfriended me on Facebook, I imagine because they got tired of me calling out their dissemination of untrue things. It kind of bums me out, because this was a person that I respected in school. I tried to be respectful, though it's hard to reflect intent in text. I used to at least have spirited discussion with them, but I guess they had enough. Could be worse, I suppose. Some years ago one of my high school crushes I unfriended because she was super-crazy-racist. It shocks me to this day.
To be honest with myself, I wasn't going to change their mind on anything. They were already convinced that it was Ukraine's fault for being invaded. But the specific case involved a Fox talking head, talking about tariffs and how we were going to "win," despite nearly every reputable economist in the world explaining why this was bad. Just today, the Fed chair, arguably a top expert on macroeconomics, described the risk we're facing.
Truth is not that hard to find. Observable facts should be obvious enough. Evaluating the credibility of a source of information should also be straight forward. A nihilist with a podcast is not trustworthy the way a trained journalist is. More than anything though, expertise still matters. It's still a real thing. People say things like, "I did my research," but Googling results with your own confirmation bias is not research, it's parroting what you want to hear. Research for most people means gathering information from a number of sources, and leaning into the credibility and experience of experts. With kids dying of measles, in 2025, you can see that so-called "research" by some can have deadly consequences.
Mistrust of experts is bizarre. When I'm sick, I trust my doctor. If I need legal advice, I talk to a lawyer. If I need to fix my car, I take it in. As I've tried to learn new things, like lighting, I have leaned into people who have been doing it for years.
The source of the mistrust is hardly a mystery. The MAGA movement, which is undeniably fascist in nature, runs from the fascist playbook. Putting aside the victimhood and scapegoating for a moment, they do their best to sow mistrust in journalists and experts. If you don't believe them, then you have only the people attempting to consolidate power to trust. Convenient, right? I am amazed every single day that otherwise intelligent people buy into this. History is unambiguous about how that works.
It's possible that I am naive, but I can't imagine that this works out in the long run. Eventually, if you experience enough negative outcomes, how do you not lean back into expertise? Right now people are losing extraordinary amounts of wealth as the stock market craps out, and taxing liquor has never been well received either. Will inflation change minds? Given the volume of people who seem to think Ukraine is at fault for being invaded, I'm not sure. It's like some insane, political variant of Stockholm Syndrome.
If you're reading this and you are a person that rejects expertise, I encourage you to think that through.
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