This comment mostly echoes common talking points (all of which I agree with), but I really like this nugget of insight: > I think only high trust countries wen

This comment mostly echoes common talking points (all of which I agree with), but I really like this nugget of insight: > I think only high trust countries went through this relatively unscathed. Off the top of my head that does sound true – I’m thinking of the Nordic countries as usual. I wonder if anyone has tried to quantify this? Maybe by tabulating vaccination uptake against trust in media polls? I do think there is a phenomenon somewhat akin to overfitting happening when you compare any country to the US. The US produces such overwhelming cultural exports that it’s impossible to analyze any other culture without considering the US itself as a background variable. For example, maybe Norwegians have higher trust in media than Americans partially because they see the disaster unfolding in America and want to avoid the same fate. In many ways the US media/political culture has become the reality show of the world. As an aside, it’s bizarre that Americans put any trust in media at all. There are no meaningful qualifications required to become a “journalist” other than the ability to consistently output a few thousand words a month. In fact, in many cases people gravitate to journalism because they don’t know what else to do. That’s certainly what I observed at my college newspaper. Some of them who eventually found a path are now working in industry or otherwise attempting to produce value. But the rest of the highflying newspaper staff? They’re blue check marks on Twitter attracting political bot accounts and being retweeted as the voice of media outlets. I find this amusing in light of my personal knowledge that they’re the last people I’d ever ask for an opinion or advice on any topic. It’s perplexing to me how much we let these reporters shape the conversation in society. For a world of six billion, we sure do have tunnel vision for the opinions of a self-selected, highly connected and decidedly mediocre minority. Next time you read one of these think pieces with a word count in a multiple of 400, take a minute to imagine the Kanban board that just funneled some morsel of a talking point into your brain.