How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem
foreignaffairs.com
How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem
1–10 of 27 posts
Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem
#2Let’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 distrust in today’s society values, that is the real problem.
Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem
#3Let’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.
Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem
#4Another 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.
Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem
#5Part 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, yet they’ll jump head first into divisive political arguments that then alienate half their audience who may have had something to learn from a field they actually know about.
I know I trust people who demonstrate the maturity to not do this more than people who let their emotions/desire for attention drive what they say publicly.
Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem
#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 a graph against a score in a relevant knowledge test.
Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem
#7Two things that I think are true:
1. Ordinary people reject expertise in ways that are incredibly stupid and harmful 2. Experts have expanded the scope of what they feel entitled to have opinions about well beyond their training and experience
> “Stitch this cut in my leg, but don’t lecture me about my diet.”
> “Help me beat this tax problem, but don’t remind me that I should have a will.”
Whether to change your diet, whether to have a will or not - these are value judgments. They tell me about how I ought to live, that I should prefer one thing over another. Tax attorneys and doctors have no special training in making value judgments. This isn't very different from a financial planner telling you to retire in Arizona because there are a lot of golf courses, and he personally likes to play golf.
Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem
#8Part 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.
Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem
#9Another 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.
Re: How America Lost Faith in Expertise and Why That's a Giant Problem
#10Can't help but think it goes way beyond "faith in expertise".
When I first heard the phrase "Post-truth politics" I thought that's ridiculous. But lately I'm thinking we're entering a post truth era in multiple areas of life.
Take for example finance. It's all just numbers in computers. Or notions of privacy in the digital world. Or identity in general.
Lies, artificial constructs and smoke & mirrors everywhere. And more importantly I'm no longer confident I can cut through the jungle even as - what I like to believe - a rather rational person.