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Read How America Lost Faith in Expertise by Tom Nichols

In many ways, the populist surge that brought Donald Trump to office represents a rejection of experts and all they represent. Americans today see ignorance as a virtue. Here’s why they’re very, very wrong.

This is a long piece, but worth a read, and I would encourage everyone to read it, regardless of what your politics are. Ignorance really is considered a virtue in our society, and for once, this really is something that occurs frequently on both sides and by this point is a deeply held belief. Nobody gets to be smug on this one. As a result of the belief that ignorance is a virtue on the right, we now have President Trump, who quite proudly will not listen to any advisor who tells him something he doesn’t want to hear or anything that would cause him to question an already-held belief. And on the left, we have Alexandria Ocacio Cortez, who is young enough to still believe that she is more knowledgeable than she actually is on a whole range of subjects. In Cortez’s case, there is hope that she will mature before seeking the presidency, if that’s even one of her goals. But hope is not a strategy that anyone should rely on. In Trump’s case, I’m afraid we’ve passed the point where we can reasonably expect that there’s going to be a shift in his personality that would cause him to begin not only listening to, but seeking, the advice of those who are experts in the various subjects he must make decisions on as president. In my view, Ocacio Cortez and Trump are, (in some very striking ways), mirror images of each other. But that’s for exploration in another post. This article is enough to be getting on with for now.

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