As I like to say;
A few years back, you might remember, we were subjected to one of those navel-gazing D.C. polemics lamenting the “death of expertise.” Know-nothing proles had been showing less than appropriate reverence for the expert class — even though it continues to get so much wrong. In reality, it’s been more a “suicide of expertise.”
When allegedly erudite social scientists with big platforms make hyper-partisan arguments from positions of authority — “Hey, sociologist here . . .” — they do their already untrustworthy disciplines no favors. It’s not just that a Nobel Prize–winning economist such as Paul Krugman has adopted the malicious rhetoric of shrieking activists; it’s that his partisan-fueled predictions are so often and exhaustively wrong that he’s probably set back trust in economics by decades. (So maybe Twitter isn’t all bad?) Same goes for constitutional scholars such as Laurence Tribe. Once respected on both sides of the ideological divide, he is now sometimes barely distinguishable from @notmypresident6758we9a, the account that is raging deep in your feed late on a Saturday night.
That death or suicide of expertise isn’t ubiquitous. It’s more selective as only those experts whose supposedly wise and sage advice supports a prevailing ideology are allowed to comment and are, thereby, hailed as geniuses. Anyone who has a contrarian opinion to, say, “climate change” is silenced, sidelined, and branded as dissidents or heretics.
+++BA
BA, I have been criticized by many for my intellectual arrogance, yet to this day no one has shown me anything that I am not capable of understanding with a little research. I am reaching the end of my ability to do that but I still hate experts and those who think they know more than I do. Why? Because they don’t.
It isn’t so much that they may know more than someone but that they are reluctant to explain it, believing that doing so would diminish their powers or get them kicked out of the “wizard” club.
What?????? You’re not looking forward to the glory days of the expert? That’s what the 2020 election was all about.
“Der Regulierungstaat Uber Alles”, is rule by unaccountable bureaucrats, in tandem with experts, whose most noteworthy credential will be celebrating and promoting the half assed ideology du jour. It’s no use talking to Biden voters, the consequences will go over their heads. Even if they understood, most would not object. Anticipate that policies will be half baked. Elections have consequences, so anticipate that what they can f’up they will f’up, to the detriment of Working America. The Dems don’t wish working America well in anyway, at all.
You need to be looking around for ways to maintain yourselves. For example, we are casting about, looking for a secondary heat source for our home, that they won’t be able to screw up.
It’s important for the layperson to distinguish where experts are likely to be right, and where their predictions should be taken with a huge grain of salt.
When the experts tell you that some giant space rock will miss the earth by 3 million km, you can be pretty sure they’ll be right. Scientists are really, really good at celestial mechanics.
When they tell you that Joe Biden has an 8% lead in the popular vote, that means Biden will probably win, but who knows by what margin.
When they tell you that a stock is a screaming buy, you may dismiss the opinion as utterly worthless.
FYI: The US ‘professional political class’ was on full display on-stage 9 months ago (February 7th) for the DNC debate in Manchester NH. If you scan the transcript of that debate (which can be found here: https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/new-hampshire-democratic-debate-transcript), you will find *zero* mention of ‘coronavirus’, ‘Covid’, or even ‘virus’. It was not on their effing radars. This–perhaps more than anything else–vividly illustrated to me that the entire lot of them were fundamentally unserious about working for the actual safety and security of Americans. And they still are.
The very next day we ordered our N-95 masks, started stockpiling food, water, wood and medical supplies, and realized that we were in for a long ordeal. Fortunately (thus far) our water/energy/sewer have all been working fine, and there have been far lesser disruptions to the supply chain. But Biden, Harris, and the lot of the DNC (and frankly a lot of R’s) are in DC for reasons other than serving citizens.
I’m not an expert on experts…but been around long enough to know when someone is blowing smoke up my (_i_).
It’s these “Health Experts” and the less than bright politicians capitalizing on their every utterance that has me saying ..y’all kin git stuffed. Eg: News today outa Ontario (i just grabbed a bit off U-Tube)…that Ontario is looking at an Avg ~6000 CASES a day.!!
“and that if we are not all extremely careful, WE ALL are at risk as this virus is now EVERYWHERE…shreik shreik…!!
The underlying unsaid suggestion being by put out there by the “EXPERTS” is for each of us to ISOLATE ourselves in a Closet wearing a HAZMAT SUIT…….until, wait for it…….a VACCINE is available. uhuh.
There’s a reason I simply do not EVER watch any Network BS (cut the chord long ago), and have dumped FB/TWATTER in favour of Parler.
In the case of Paul Krugman, this should not be a surprise. He has a track record. In the 1990s, he tried to peddle his skills as an economist by providing advice to the new nations created by the breakup of the USSR and other nations emerging from the East Bloc. He was completely ignored by all of the Baltic states, Poland and the Czech Republic. All of them had economic growth soaring through the roof after disregarding Krugman’s advice about how to handle debt and national financing.
Krugman also claimed in 1998 that the internet was a fad that would fade by 2005 as nobody would have anything new to say – he compared it to the fax machine
David Bowie in 1999 said that internet’s effects would be profound and unimaginable. “Exhilarating and terrifying” were his words.
So a cocaine-wracked pop star had a far better handle on things than a Nobel-Prize-winning economist.
The death of leadership and the ability to discern between advice from various experts to come to the optimal decision?
Trump did it. Kennedy did it during the Cuban Missile Crisis when LeMay insisted they bomb Cuba. It that art now lost?
In the age of neo-regents who rule but couldn’t be bothered using leadership, inserting cronyism, this seems inevitable.
The death of leadership and the ability to discern between advice from various experts to come to the optimal decision?
It wouldn’t apply to Prinz Dummkopf. He’s an expert on quantum computing, you know.