Death of the Experts

Trump was impeached and acquitted for the second time. Congressional aides auditioned to make the Netflix documentary of the Capitol Insurrection. Tom Brady celebrated his 7th Super Bowl trophy in true Florida fashion — with boats and tequila. And Disney cancelled one of its stars for unpopular opinions while continuing to self-censor to earn the Chinese market.

Things feel chaotic in the bitterly cold winter of 2021. 11 months into the pandemic uncertainty and every day can feel like a breaking point. Yet, life keeps moving on, and it often feels like we’re on a boat in a storm without a captain.

Part of this feeling is the relativism of the modern era. Everybody is living “their” truth. Running wild on whatever version of reality they’re smoking. It’s understandable. We all think one of the previous captains did a poor job and are ready to give it a try. Between ongoing censorship, the rise of conspiracy theories, and the impending sense of uncivil, live-action-role-playing war, we are constantly trying to discern what is true. Forced to chose from the menagerie of social media news sources that have nothing in common. We have so many choices, most of us are happy to let the algorithm choose for us.

I’ve begun to understand this in a different way. We are living through the death of experts.

Are you a good listener? Who do you listen to? How do you decide who to listen to?

Listening can be difficult. It requires being quiet, slowing down, and tuning out all our distractions to pay attention to the speaker. These conditions are anathema to 21st century life. Equally prohibitive is the desire to be heard. Everywhere across society, we are being given new tools and technologies to be heard and affirmed and liked. It’s the driving force behind most online engagement. It’s a well-established advertising trend my wife likes to attribute to Oprah: speak your truth.

These modern paradigms are leading us down a path of distrust and disdain for authority, centering on the lies of politicians, corporate leaders, and the entrenched media powers that fail to hold them accountable. People are upset and angry and looking for a voice to call out the lies and speak honestly about our life experiences. It was the biggest appeal of Trump. And you don’t need any credentials to point out the hypocrisy we see in abundance.

War, religion, history, science, law, health care, and more — all these areas of society where we depend upon experts to guide us in our choices. For many of us, it feels like we have gotten nothing but lies. Catholic priests and agent orange. Weapons of mass destruction and Flint’s water supply. The list goes on the more nuanced you get.

The latest thing for me is baby food and the recent Congressional report on the dangerous levels of toxic metals quietly passing company inspections. Luckily, I have a brother-in-law who’s a medical physicist that talked me down because of the lack of scientific rigor in the report. But his assurance still rests on trusting further studies by the FDA. An organization that looks the other way while harmful additives and addictive opioids flood our communities.

The more I look at these potentially toxic boxes of organic baby food on my shelf, that I bought at our local co-op, the more I feel like I can’t trust anyone.

The uncertainty and stress has smeared this distrust across the board. Can I trust my pediatrician to research the manufacturers of the vaccines she’ll give my baby? Can I trust why the city of Bozeman puts fluoride in our drinking water? Can I trust myself to sort through this mess of information disorder?

When anyone can share their opinion to hundreds of millions of people online, what happens to the voice of the expert?

The election of Donald Trump was the ultimate affirmation that, as a country, we don’t trust experts.

Yet there are so many lingering questions. What does it mean to be an expert? When do I need to rely on experts? Who do I currently trust that is an expert? I certainly haven’t lost my faith in the scientific process. I know we need experts. But which ones?

Maybe the real question is: who can we trust?

Right now, it seems that nearly every public figure’s credibility is suspect. The only remaining measure of credibility is the validity of an argument and its logical support. And perhaps the transparency of the person making the argument and their methods of drawing conclusions.

It’s why I’m choosing to speak out more and more. I’ve lost faith in our leaders and experts. They do not respect us enough to be transparent and upfront about the reason for the decisions they are making. About Trump. And the pandemic. About the lockdown. And about the economy.

So I’m throwing my hat in the ring. Another voice in the storm. Pleading and arguing for a better way to Make America Great Again.

I have no choice. I need to do everything I can to build a better world for my son.