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LINK The Death of Expertise

I think most of us are aware this is happening. The question remains, how do we turn the tide before we hit the tipping point?

"This isn’t just about politics, which would be bad enough. No, it’s worse than that: the perverse effect of the death of expertise is that without real experts, everyone is an expert on everything. To take but one horrifying example, we live today in an advanced post-industrial country that is now fighting a resurgence of whooping cough — a scourge nearly eliminated a century ago — merely because otherwise intelligent people have been second-guessing their doctors and refusing to vaccinate their kids after reading stuff written by people who know exactly zip about medicine. (Yes, I mean people like Jenny McCarthy)."

Amzungu 8 May 24
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18 comments

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1

In the 1940s I heard a couple of grade school teachers say, “Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.” Has anything changed?

1

Sixteen year old boy got fired today. He said the protestors in MO that had the guns pointed at them deserved to be shot. Because of the "castle doctrine". I've had enough of him and his 30 year old mother. Welfare income to support three illegitimate kids. Three fathers and a heroin habit later? Now he is a law expert.

1

Just ordered that book. I saw it on the shelf of someone on the tube.

0

Many today haven’t seen the 1972 movie The Poseidon Adventure. In it, a tidal wave overturns a crowded passenger ship and small groups of people follow leaders who attempt to escape by differing routes. Some will escape; some won’t.

2

Turn that on its head; Expertise is not dead, the respect or expertise is dying! Much to our own self harm!

I started a book, last night, "the Truth About Denial, Bias and Self-Deception in Science, Politics, and Religion," and between just the preface and page 4, we have this:
Denial is “…based on a preexisting, affective attachment to a particular conclusion.” It is “…the emotionally motivated rejection (or embrace) of a factual claim in the face of strong evidence to the contrary.” “Our interests and emotional needs affect not just our values and choices, but also our factual picture of the world around us…Our picture of the world is distorted by self-interest, peer influence,prejudice, fear,and favoritism and we are often not aware of the influence our motives have on our factual understanding of of the evidence for our conclusions.”

“The phenomenon of denial…is dependent on motivated cognition. ‘Motivated cognition’ refers to the ‘unconscious tendency of individuals to process information in a manner that suits some end or goal extrinsic to the formation of accurate beliefs.’ Motivated cognition happens behind the scenes, but is closely tied to the more overt rationalization of belief,” defined “as the process of retroactively inventing defensive justifications for holding those beliefs formed via motivated cognition. Motivated cognition is about belief formation, whereas rationalization is about maintaining and defending those beliefs."

From the posted article: " By this, I do not mean the death of actual expertise, the knowledge of specific things that sets some people apart from others in various areas. There will always be doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other specialists in various fields. Rather, what I fear has died is any acknowledgement of expertise as anything that should alter our thoughts or change the way we live."

You are absolutely correct. It stems from many things and the book you are reading will certainly address much of them. I have long said that ethnocentricity is the bane of humanity, and until we find a way to overcome it, we will continue to struggle as a human race.

2

Those who disdain expertise should consider a plumber for their next colonoscopy.

Reminds me:
In the best of worlds the police are British, the lovers French, the mechanics German, the chefs Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss.
In the worst of worlds the police are German, the lovers Swiss, the mechanics French, the chefs British, and it is all organized by the Italians.

0

Great comments....those anti-vaxers are killing people.

1

How do you determine or qualify expertise considering the extent to which conflict of interest, corruption and bribery exists in our society today?

By using a bit of critical thinking. Some areas are obviously more difficult to tease out, but a solid BS detector will get there. I think half the battle is won if you can eliminate the garbage you shouldn't be consuming. If you have a Hollywood star giving medical advice, your BS meter should be screaming. If you have someone promoting something, anything, without a shred of quality evidence to back it up, your BS meter should be screaming. If you have a orange buffoon telling you to take hydroxychloroquine without a shred of quality evidence to back it up, your BS meter should be screaming. If you have a pediatrician on TV talking about infectious disease and epidemiology, your BS meter should be humming in the background and pushing for confirmation of the information from actual infectious disease experts to make sure the information is congruent. If not, guess whose opinion I am going to put more weight on? The actual expert. Not the kinda sorta related expert.

@Amzungu So take Dr Fauci, for example. Is he someone you would consider an infectious disease expert? If he is, how is it possible for anyone in the general public to know that the expertise he is promoting doesn't have some particular motive when conflict of interest, corruption and bribery is so rampant within our systems? I have heard, from other "infectious disease experts", that he was involved in creating the current coronavirus. Also, whose BS meter is correct when 1/2 of the public's BS meter is pinging and the other 1/2 of the public says it is not BS? Can we so flippantly say that the 1/2 that doesn't agree with us is just dumb? It is easy to hate 'orange buffoons' because it is popular but how do we know he isn't just sharing knowledge he received from other "infectious disease experts" who either have a different opinion or motive than Dr Fauci. It makes me think assessment of expertise, without some serious investigation and in depth background and historical information about the person dispensing, is largely subjective and nearly impossible. Especially considering all of the experts we have telling us what to do or what is good for us in every aspect of our lives.

@beenthere if one is using a proper BS meter, the BS will fall apart in the process of assessing it. One big mistake the public makes is thinking that 'authorities' are the same as experts, but that is not true. Trump is an authority, and whether you love him or hate him, you cannot consider him a scientific expert when he has zero scientific education or experience. So when using a BS meter for a situation like the chloroquine issue, it is an easy decision to trust the expert, such as Dr Fauci, who has served multiple presidents in his position and has an entire career in the field of infectious disease, who has been nothing but consistent in his information dissemination, has not played a bit of partisan politics, and consistently offers information based on available evidence and research that is easily independently verified. There is no question who should be listened to, regardless of who the authority may be getting his information from, because none of it is known and what is disseminated is mere anecdotal evidence that is not independently verifiable. The authority argument falls apart through BS detection assessment. Those things should also give you as much confidence as humanly possible that there is no ulterior motive within the expert's advice, though admittedly no one can ever know that 100% and the more corrupt our systems get, the harder it becomes to trust anyone. But I don't think the answer is to trust no one and give everyone's input equal weight because that end would be a hotter mess than the one we're currently dealing with. As far as whose BS meter is right when a population seems so divided on an issue, I am going with the one which survives the assessment process. I've always been a fan of Sagan's BS detection kit. Posted for your viewing pleasure. 🙂
[brainpickings.org]

@Amzungu As before, I appreciate your perspective and ability to articulate. When it comes to BS, it seems waders are needed these days. We are swimming in manipulated data, information and statistics which translates to propaganda on a massive scale. And to what end or for whose benefit? So it may be that, in general, BS detectors are overwhelmed trying to contend with the daily massive assault. Perhaps, a grain of salt is a healthy antidote to our confirmation bias. And the death of expertise, per se, may be a cyclical re-balancing which is necessary.

@beenthere well said.

1

We are being programmed for something and in the doing there will be no more experts.

[buzzfeednews.com]

Before the Information Apocalypse harms too many people there will be laws passed. Fraud doesn’t have First Amendment protection.

4

There are a number of reasons for this demise.
Just to quote a few:
1 Evangelicalism, which wants to support their little holy book, no matter how ridiculous its claims are
2 Critical thinking skills are not even hinted at in most schools. Our schools can't teach such things- kids might actually use them and reject their parent's beliefs and values
3 right-wing politics, which wants their beliefs validated without any facts and even with facts to the contrary/ They've been downgrading expertise and education for years (one of the dirst things the greedy-old-party almost always cuts is educationsl funding. After all, we must cut taxes to ensure that the rich stay rich.

1

This is a real problem but you name only one cause. When I was getting a shingles vaccine at our pharmacy I noted a world map color coded with different diseases in different countries. Much of Europe was experiencing an increase in Measles. I knew but asked anyway and the pharmacist told me that parts of the world that are seeing increasing infectious diseases are also those that have high immigration rates especially from developing countries. What happened to the idea of quarantining people coming from poorer countries and/or those with undocumented shot records? Right now, hopefully, people are starting to realize how important it is to really control our borders and travelers. What is more important, health or money and convenience?

Agreed, there are multiple causes for the increase in infectious diseases outbreaks in developed countries and distrust in experts is only one among them; but, especially in the US, I think it is the one that has had the most impact on spurring the anti vaccine movement. I do agree that there should be greater surveillance of immigrants' vaccination and exposure status. I have no idea what the current processes may be, and surely illegal immigration subverts any of that, but it seems more needs to be done. Unfortunately, valuing public health requires a vision of greater proportions than what our narrow minds seem to allow us. We're far more focused on prevention and persecution where immigration is concerned. Safe assimilation seems a mere afterthought.

@Amzungu The immigration is a very serious and complicated one and few really take the time to understand it. We have traditionally limited the immigration levels to some 1/4 million. After the Vet Nam debacle the numbers were increased to repatriate the supporters from S. Viet Nam. Industry came along and wanted a source of cheap and controllable labor and lobbied congress (and paid off some environmental groups (ZPG and the Sierra Club). Terminology and politics were changed and now we have reached a dire situation. This virus may bring us back to some real sanity. We need to understand this should not be about people but a sustainable and workable policy under which all must live, immigrants and citizens alike.

@JackPedigo Immigration is a complex issue. Though I do firmly believe that the melting pot status of the US is among our greatest strengths, we just haven't figured out how to fairly and productively embrace that.

@Amzungu I agree somewhat. Every gain also comes with some pain. In this mornings paper was a long article on how the indigenous people suffered from the pandemics brought to this area from European settlers. It is still ongoing and even brought to light how some practices (animal husbandry) have only made the problems worse. [washingtonpost.com] Hope you can get this. Also the book 1491 highlighted how there were vast and powerful civilizations already in the Americas before the Europeans came and they had a culture some say rivaled the Europeans. In the end it's all about conjecture not real proof.

The bottom line is life is about evolution and if we stop evolving we will perish. Evolution is not cultural but adapting to the world and all the problems it brings. In 1491 it showed how having an overabundance of cultural diversity actually caused tribal states to implode. As you said it is very very complex. In case you are not aware I lived in Europe for 15 years. I am the godfather of a son born to a Syrian/Turkish family, my sister-in-law is Vietnamese and my late partner was Iranian. She understood the complexity and problems of excessive immigration better than most.

@JackPedigo ANYTHING in excess is toxic, and I guess that's precisely my point. We;re good at "doing it wrong" but I think there are ways to achieve better balance and greater communal gains, and maybe one day we will figure out how to "do it right". I view greater diversity as a positive thing, however, there are inherent complex aspects that come along with it, and to make it a net plus for all, these things need to be engaged on a deeper level by all sides.

@Amzungu Thank you for continuing this conversation. However, I have had this discussion many times. Even my own sister-in-law, a professional biologist, doesn't get it. Aldo Leopold once said “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

Diversity is about biotic diversity not human cultural diversity. A basic, undeniable fact is that the more humans in a given place the less the biotic diversity! Too many cooks can and do spoil the broth. We really need to stop putting humans at the center of the planet. To quote my late partner's question to her 2nd grade students: What is more important, people or dirt? You are right excess in most things is toxic and that especially includes us.
[hcn.org]

4

It does seem stupid is the new badge of pride.

1

Ahhhhhh, my favorite, whooping cough...not a good thing for a child to have, but frail Aunt Mary, who will undoubtedly fracture several ribs as she coughs herself into the ICU? Yeah, good going, anti-vaxxers!

4

This is the sad reality of America, study just revealed that 50% of Fox News viewers believe that Bill Gates will inject a microchip with the COVID19 vaccine or morons going to beaches and parks without face masks because "the virus is gone."

3

Scary stuff. Think the movie "ldiocracy"!

1

Here's my take on the topic. People feel they can't trust ANY experts anymore. Our confidence in them has been been eroded by things like the Tuskegee experiments, doctors falling line with the narrative that smoking didn't kill for so long, forced sterilization of certain groups ,all of the medicine that's been pushed by the medical community that later turns out to be deadly or debilitating etc. Not that these people are right about vaccines but you truly can't fault them for distrusting the medical community when it's so grossly failed public trust so many times.

I absolutely understand where you're coming from. Historical medicine is one of my favorite rabbit holes. We have done some horrible, inexcusable, atrocious things in the name of medical research, but we have also infused countless protections to ensure such things don't happen in the future, done some truly amazing things, saved countless lives, and too often today are being wholly judged by the bad actions of a few.
I vividly remember a patient encounter I had when I first became a nurse. A patient was scheduled for a routine screening procedure, which typically got booked out further than diagnostic procedures where a problem was present. So she waited for a month to have her testing done. While reviewing her chart the day before her procedure, I realized she only needed the procedure as a prerequisite for a lung transplant she was waiting to get on the list for. Our delay with her procedure also delayed her getting on the transplant list. Our schedulers knew about the transplant list issue, but did not note the information, so it was not caught until she was due to come in. Had I known, she would have been scheduled within a few days, and I felt horrible that our 'mistake' had caused a delay. When she arrived, I immediately went into her room and explained what had happened with the scheduling of her appt and sincerely apologized for the mishandling of her scheduling. The lady started crying and took my hand. She said to me "mistakes happen, and had you not said anything, I would have been none the wiser and simply thought that it was the way it was supposed to be. I am not crying because I am upset with you. I am crying because you showed the integrity of acknowledging it when you didn't have to, and I don't see that too often in this world."
I have been lucky to work with people whose professional integrity I respect, and who value honesty with their patients, but I do realize there are all kinds in the profession, just like any other, so it's not a blanket defense. I just see a very different side of the medical world than those who are only focused on the errors from the past.
Though, now we have Trump degrading many of those safeguards, eliminating liability, rushing approvals without sufficient evidence to support them, and paving the way for corporate greed to reign. That is most definitely not how we encourage and build trust in medical professionals. If the research isn't done properly, or regulations are rushed, doctors are being given tools without the proper information supporting them. And that is not okay.

@Amzungu protecting the profits of medical corporations MADE THE PROBLEM WORSE so the wrongs continue to kill and force needless suffering upon people.....

4

Those with power have been engaged in a long term campaign to disrupt our value norms with slick propaganda. They also orchestrate drama, the result of which is to keep progressives on their back heel, and overwhelm our responsiveness with tangles of misinformation.

4

I'm no expert but this article kicks ass.

It's dated, but definitely ever relevant.

@Amzungu yeah I've seen it before. dead solid perfect.

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