Posted on 03/13/2026 5:38:18 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Occasionally I hear credentialed professionals with prestigious titles whine about the so-called “war on expertise.” It really bothers people who see themselves as “experts” that a growing share of society ignores them. A psychologist might intuit something revealing from the lack of self-confidence plaguing our “expert” class. If all the fancy degrees, voluminous curricula vitae, and lofty career positions have failed to instill a resilient modicum of self-esteem, then perhaps all those things are not the true measures of a person’s worth.
“Experts” do not like to be challenged. They say things such as, “I have a PhD in this,” or, “I get paid a lot of money to talk about that,” and expect everybody listening to stop thinking and immediately agree with everything the “expert” has to say. I once witnessed a young “race studies” professor intrude into an online debate and tell everyone that she was correct and everybody else was wrong. Her evidence? She cited the costs of her education, her recent promotion, and her new annual salary. Traditionally, that’s considered a specific kind of logical fallacy known as an appeal to authority. When appeals to “expertise” replace reason and rationality, false conclusions are more easily justified.
We have been living in an era rife with appeals to authority masquerading as truth. In fact, I came across something hilariously unsurprising as I was writing this essay. Because Internet search engines no longer operate as research tools but rather as propaganda aggregators, I often have to peruse many pages of search results before I find topical and pertinent sources. Leftwing disinformation index Wikipedia routinely receives prime placement for any online query. I decided to check how the propagandists at Wikipedia describe appeals to authority these days, and the editors did not disappoint (someone as cynical as I):
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
With all time spent at home, I spent a good chunk of it actually reading, deeply, a large number of published medical papers about covid. I was shocked by how fraudulent they were. And by how brazenly they would headline a conclusion that was totally NOT supported by their data. And then, within weeks, I’d see other “peer-reviewed” papers referencing these false claims. That allowed them to look convincing as they referenced so many other papers.
I argued about one with a friend who is a pediatrician. His response to me was; “ You’re not a doctor, you don’t understand”. My reply ? “I am an engineer. I took 5X as much math in college as you did. I KNOW how to read and understand data.”
6 months later, that paper as withdrawn, due to “math errors”. But it continued to be referenced by dozens of other papers.
The entire system of academic peer review and publication is a nest of fraud.
You get the $cience that you pay for.
Good grief. Those men were highly trained military officers as opposed to the McNamara types.
Didn’t I see some photos of Walter hanging out with Epstein? I’m waiting for the liberals to tell me that means he was a pedo...
EXACTLY!
They were what we call "experts". Real ones. And Roosevelt, for all his other faults, was smart enough to let them run the show. The aptly named Robert Strange McNamara, for all of his exalted three years of service, was absolutely NOT an expert on running a war. Lyndon Johnson, for all of having served as a Naval Officer reaching the "high rank" of Commander, was even less an expert on running a war.
Roosevelt let the experts run the war.
Johnson ran the war with his own utter lack of expertise.
Trump is letting Hegseth and the JCS run the war.
I have absolutely no idea ...
FDR was also Assistant Secretary of the Navy during WWI.
The expert is always from out-of-town. Murphy’s Law
A prophet is without honor in his home town. Jesus Christ
How many experts have you listened to that you immediately realized were full of chit? I’d say a majority.
“Authorities remain baffled...”
>Too many people think that “thinking for yourself” or “questioning authority” is a guarantee for being correct.
This doesn’t matter. Social consensus is usually nothing more than mob mentality.
Much Madness is divinest Sense -
To a discerning Eye -
Much Sense - the starkest Madness -
’Tis the Majority
In this, as all, prevail -
Assent - and you are sane -
Demur - you’re straightway dangerous -
And handled with a Chain -
As far as these “experts” go, for me it comes down to what works and what doesn’t. Just check out all the 1911 related YouTube programs. You have to wade through a lot of self-important trash.
This article would more accurately be titled, “Experts know MORE than they think” — and THAT is the problem. They need to think more than simply mindlessly repeating what the “authorities” have told them is the truth — and rather, find out the “truth” for themselves — because that is the true meaning of the scientific method — that any idea can (should) be tested by every other to “prove” the truth of the matter. Real experts present their ideas for others to challenge and test for its accuracy and verifiability — rather than the academic notion that one should merely unquestionably plagiarize the ideas of some supposedly great and infallible mind.
In the quest for truth, there is no unquestioned great authority — but must be examined and “discriminated” as to its validity by “others” — and not just blindly following those who claim to be the authority, or in the case of Doctor Fauci and a few others, that “I AM the science.” That’s medieval Inqusition stuff — when those who disagreed would be burned at the stake, and other suitable coercions.
That requires MORE ability to discriminate these differences — and NOT as the union shop stewards will insist that they should not think for themselves but merely repeat everything they tell them to chant — and if they merely band together as a mob they can enforce their “Democracy” on all the others because “might makes right” — under their authoritarian pronouncements and edicts. That’s how the Democrats have everything backwards. Their knowledge is not worth knowing — and why they need to actually do more thinking.
Great example.
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