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One the biggest challenges of our time is finding the right balance between encouraging people to respect expertise but also engage in critical thinking.
I think a lot of people don't appreciate how incredibly difficult it is to find the right balance.
I think a lot of people don't appreciate how incredibly difficult it is to find the right balance.
In philosophy, we tell our students "it's a fallacy to accept something on authority. You should dig in and figure out what the reasons are."
That's exactly what a lot of conspiracy theorists think they are doing. Disbelievers are just not critical thinkers.
That's exactly what a lot of conspiracy theorists think they are doing. Disbelievers are just not critical thinkers.
Many conspiracy theorists aren't dumb. A lot of them know more about their subject than the average American, and they can "win" an argument against someone who doesn't know as much (about COVID or vaccines or chem trails or whatever).
This further confirms their self-image.
This further confirms their self-image.
On the other hand, blind faith in authority is quite obviously bad now, too. Those who think the experts are Trump, the GOP, some conservative religious leaders, and some business leaders are being misled. And they are criticized for not engaging in more critical thinking.
I know what you want to say: people shouldn't treat *those people* as experts, they should believe in the *real* experts.
But this just pushes the problem back a level. How should they find experts? Should they trust some other expert to tell them? Or...?
But this just pushes the problem back a level. How should they find experts? Should they trust some other expert to tell them? Or...?
In the end, I think there are no real clear solutions. We can't tell people: just figure it out for yourself. Our world is too complicated for that. Nor can we just tell them: trust the experts, because it's too easy for charlatans to pass themselves off as that.
