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How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem

foreignaffairs.com

11–20 of 27 posts

Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem

#11
post #6

"people who thought Ukraine was located in Latin America or Australia were the most enthusiastic about using military force there" How does that happen? I can see a shoddily educated person mixing it up with a neighboring country, but to not even realize that it's in Eastern Europe? I can't remember seeing a poll presented in this format, but it'd be interesting to see results for any political question presented as…

Not surprising and completely believable. Anecdotal, but the nightly news had a segment where they went into an inner city highschool and none of the students knew Poland was a real country.

Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem

#12
Ignoring evidence is the new cultural norm. I have had American employees flat out reject findings even though there was empirical evidence backing up those findings Their retort: "nuh uh"

This was at a FAANG mind you.

Something is definitely wrong, and it's only going to get worse.

Though perhaps cognitive dissonance has always been a major problem, and it is now so much more evident in the information age.

Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem

#13
post #3
post #2

Let’s look at the silver lining. People are getting more educated by their own means using the internet. Although hardly as reliable as experts, some data is better than none. Or put yourself in today’s uneducated’s shoes. If today’s values honour dishonesty and profit making over truth(just look at social media and google results), why would I, as the weak uninformed, trust in the strong, elite expert? It is a distr…

In other words, I don’t care how smart or talented you are if you are going lie and screw me over with it.

Exactly! Integrity matters. Setting aside your ego and ambition matters.

Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem

#14
post #4

Another thing that people do is to "see" patterns in random data, and perceive "trends" from anecdotal experience that aren't necessarily happening. America never had faith in expertise, that's just your younger self being blessedly unaware of people around you.

True to some extent. But America used to have standards, at least. Now look at who is President. There are clear signs that America is far stupider than it ever has been, and we are barreling towards becoming a third world country. The Chinese will inherit the planet.

We didn't elect another Clinton, which is overall a good thing. I think the Bush dynasty should have given anyone pause that multi-generational or multi-household (?) Presidencies are simply bad, and I won't even bring up all the unproven but highly suspicious criminal activities the Clintons have been alleged to be involved with since their Arkansas days. It is simple enough: In a nation of 350 million people, there are plenty of qualified individuals such that we don't have to settle for the same brand of psychopath over and over. At least, that's my dream. MS. Clinton publicly screwed up as Secretary of State--not only the email server scandal but more so the deaths in Libya. The deaths in Libya alone are a disqualifying incident on a purely qualification/suitability for office basis. They callously wrote off loyal Americans for political reasons.

If we are barreling towards 3rd World status, the current Administration is at least attempting to apply the brakes. I've been watching very carefully the moves that have been made. I know it's fashionable to just bash everything but try to step back and just look at the facts outside if your own echo chamber for a change. Not every policy shift is terrible.

In my own city, we've had the same mayor for something like 30 years. I feel like that's not very democratic. Yes, she keeps getting re-elected. But if representative government means anything at all, it has to be more widely shared. Otherwise, it's all just a big lie.

Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem

#15
Modern expertise is deep and narrow; increasing the difficulty of aggregation and reconciliation of findings.

Those nuanced and complex findings must then be disseminated to a population with no attention span; meanwhile the competition is motivated to publish a dumbed-down (wrong) version faster than you in order to capitalize on sensationalism and pull in ad revenue.

Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem

#16
post #8

Part of the problem is that experts in a particular field will get on social media, build a huge following based on their expertise, then spout really uninformed (but authoritative sounding) opinions about fields they are not experts in. Eventually people lose faith in anything they say. Tech experts, celebrities... do not have more informed opinions about politics (for example) than the average person on the street,…

Well said. Ben Carson during last election demonstrated this clearly, top in his medical field, but was not well informed on matters of politics and economics. Even though he is the head of HUD now, at least he seemed humble enough to know his limits at the time.

Not a good example. Ben Carson ran for president himself.

Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem

#17

Ignoring evidence is the new cultural norm. I have had American employees flat out reject findings even though there was empirical evidence backing up those findings Their retort: "nuh uh" This was at a FAANG mind you. Something is definitely wrong, and it's only going to get worse. Though perhaps cognitive dissonance has always been a major problem, and it is now so much more evident in the information age.

[deleted]

Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem

#18
post #2

Let’s look at the silver lining. People are getting more educated by their own means using the internet. Although hardly as reliable as experts, some data is better than none. Or put yourself in today’s uneducated’s shoes. If today’s values honour dishonesty and profit making over truth(just look at social media and google results), why would I, as the weak uninformed, trust in the strong, elite expert? It is a distr…

Are they getting informed or misinformed? I can easily find 1000 articles and documentaries that "prove" 9/11 was either a hoax or an inside job. Many of them are well written and tell a compelling story if you have never heard the counter evidence.

Interested in the reality of climate change? You could end up at polar opposite conclusions with plenty of support for your position depending where you search (and what your own personality steers towards believing).

Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem

#19
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well said. Ben Carson during last election demonstrated this clearly, top in his medical field, but was not well informed on matters of politics and economics. Even though he is the head of HUD now, at least he seemed humble enough to know his limits at the time.

Not a good example. Ben Carson ran for president himself.

Yes, as I stated, but then realized he was above his level and dropped out.

Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem

#20
post #6

"people who thought Ukraine was located in Latin America or Australia were the most enthusiastic about using military force there" How does that happen? I can see a shoddily educated person mixing it up with a neighboring country, but to not even realize that it's in Eastern Europe? I can't remember seeing a poll presented in this format, but it'd be interesting to see results for any political question presented as…

I'm even more impressed they would think it's in Australia. I can see not having any idea where it would be but to believe it's inside a relatively famous and we'll known country?
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