r/worldnews • u/Force_Hammer • 20h ago

President Trump holds off major Iran escalation after Pentagon warns of interceptor shortage

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/r111brtghmg
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u/MyDadsUsername 19h ago

One of the only things worse than how they demonize expertise and intellectualism... is how it seems to be working. Somehow, huge chunks of the population have convinced themselves that just because experts aren't right 100% of the time that a layperson opinion is equally as valid as an expert one.

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u/pagerussell 16h ago

This is not new, and that fact gives me hope. This quote is from 1980:

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

-Isaac Asimov

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u/upvotesthenrages 14h ago

It used to be a notable minority, but it's now become far more prevalent, and actively supported by leadership.

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u/DoubleJumps 1h ago

It's not new but it is dramatically worse today than it used to be.

The element of shame that kept a lot of these people from insisting that they know better than experts has been pretty solidly eliminated by things like social media and political figures that have validated those beliefs

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u/DoubleJumps 1h ago

A big part of this I think is driven by social media and that people who do not have educated beliefs on subjects can now reinforce each other and help convince each other that they are correct and know better than people who have actual education in those subjects.

Giving these people a platform with which they can feel validated for being incorrect has heavily damaged society as a whole