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> but plenty of people make the opposite mistake of trusting authorities In almost 40 years, my heuristic of trusting the government and ignoring anything bein
by peteretep 5y ago
> but plenty of people make the opposite mistake of trusting authorities
In almost 40 years, my heuristic of trusting the government and ignoring anything being sold to me as “THEY don’t want you to know this!!” has worked out really well for me.
- nomoreplease 5y agoAnd as FOIA and declassifications have shown, trusting the government doesn’t work out well for the country. Ignorance is bliss
- mahemm 5y agoWho do you think declassifies and releases information? Who do you think passed and enforces the Freedom of Information Act?
- exporectomy 5y agoIt might work if your government is trustworthy, but perhaps it's trustworthy because so many people challenge it so openly. Plenty of governments cover up embarrassing parts of their history, such as the Tiananmen Square massacre. Remember when the US government advised people not to wear masks for Covid and social media sites enforced restricting people from talking about it? Remember when the US invaded Iraq because they saw a chemical weapons site with some kind of decontamination truck circling the yard? Remember Edward Snowden showing that some spying that conspiracy theorists had believed turned out to be true? Remember the Glomar Explorer? Did you trust everything Trump said in his role as president when it conflicted with public opinion that said he was trying to hide something?