How America Lost Faith in Expertise

[HVC]

That wasn't for science

I disagree; this nation was positively enamored with science and science fiction and its possibilities back then. 

But it was sci-fi with flying cars and green space hookers. It was a hope for the future thing, not a ascience thing. At least that what it looks like to me, but then again  I wasn't around.

[Grey Fox]

That wasn't for science

I disagree; this nation was positively enamored with science and science fiction and its possibilities back then.

but you know what changed all that? The civil rights movement.

[HVC]

That wasn't for science

I disagree; this nation was positively enamored with science and science fiction and its possibilities back then.

but you know what changed all that? The civil rights movement.

Damn black people ruin everything.

[Admiral Yi]

but you know what changed all that? The civil rights movement.

wut?

[Ed Anger]

That wasn't for science

I disagree; this nation was positively enamored with science and science fiction and its possibilities back then.

but you know what changed all that? The civil rights movement.

Damn black people ruin everything.

Like basketball.

[CountDeMoney]

But it was sci-fi with flying cars and green space hookers. It was a hope for the future thing, not a ascience thing. At least that what it looks like to me, but then again  I wasn't around.

Ask grumbler, he was around.  Then again, he was around for the lightbulb.  And the gas lamp.  And fire. 

[Berkut]

That wasn't for science

I disagree; this nation was positively enamored with science and science fiction and its possibilities back then. 

Yeah, the entire "Oh it has always been that way!" as a response to any note about some trend is lazy thinking, IMO.

No, actually it has NOT always been that way.

[Ed Anger]

And the Big Bang

[Valmy]

And the Big Bang

Terrible show. No wonder people hate science and engineering now.

[Ed Anger]

And the Big Bang

Terrible show. No wonder people hate science and engineering now.

Bill Nye caused my hatred.

[Valmy]

That wasn't for science

I disagree; this nation was positively enamored with science and science fiction and its possibilities back then. 

Yeah, the entire "Oh it has always been that way!" as a response to any note about some trend is lazy thinking, IMO.

No, actually it has NOT always been that way.

I think it is the 'follow the money' Leninist type thinking. Everybody who gets paid to do anything is only doing it for the money in a corrupt way. So we have people who think doctors are so addicted to cash they are going to stand by and let their patients and loved ones die. It is a really stupid form of cynicism.

[jimmy olsen]

I'd say left or right isn't really the point, and isn't where the article goes wrong.  What's wrong is the assumption that Americans, as a whole, ever had a lot of faith in or respect for experts in the first place.

Everybody thought it was cool when we shot people into space.

That wasn't for science, that was for anti-commie points, back in the good old days when liberals loved Russia and republicans didn't.

Ah yes, noted pro-Russians JFK and LBJ

[Valmy]

The Commie lovers were never the Liberals. That was socialists like Bernie.

[Oexmelin]

I think it is the 'follow the money' Leninist type thinking. Everybody who gets paid to do anything is only doing it for the money in a corrupt way. So we have people who think doctors are so addicted to cash they are going to stand by and let their patients and loved ones die. It is a really stupid form of cynicism.

It's a very old form of suspicion that traces its roots with the emerging notion that "interest" and "self-interest" are, and should be, the most convincing form of explanation for human behavior. It thoroughly infuses our society, but I would venture that its contemporary favor has much more to do with the prevalence of economics as the "golden social science", and the success of free-market apologists who wield an influence Lenin probably never could have hoped to gain. Every one is in there for the money. Right-wingers applaud, because that's what, to them, structures society; left-wingers denounce, because money erodes all other forms of interaction. But both agree about its central place, in the equation self-interest = money.

[MadImmortalMan]

I think part of it is just degree inflation.

People are mistaking certifications with expertise when the correlation isn't necessarily accurate.