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There's a frightening crisis of trust in authority, and frankly those in authority are the only ones to blame. It's been brewing for decades. More recent causes

There's a frightening crisis of trust in authority, and frankly those in authority are the only ones to blame. It's been brewing for decades. More recent causes of this decay: -mixed messaging on basics from NIH on COVID in the early days, including outright lies (remember when wearing masks was bad for you?) -> Elites are clueless -Mixed messaging from pretty much every global leader about the best approach to handling the pandemic, clearly showing there are many uncertainties and unknowns. HOWEVER instead of genuinely acknowledging and encouraging public discourse on these uncertainties beyond lip service, act in a very paternal manner then do whatever polls tell them to do. -> Elites are clueless and only care about retaining power -Pfizer's CFO actually saying in a call in 2021 that when the pandemic is over, they will be able to drastically bump up the price on the vaccine, pricing out the global South ensuring a constant, annual "supply" of new variants to threaten the global North that can afford the annual booster. -> Elites are corrupt, in particular Pharma. -The Sackler family faces zero consequences and kept their fortune. -> Elites are corrupt, in particular Pharma. These are just three examples surrounding health and pharma, but like I said it's been brewing for decades (WMD, Banksters, Austerity, etc) and frankly I don't blame people for losing trust in authority like this. Especially given the education system is structured in a way to engender Trust in authority. Unless those in position of leadership face real consequences, inclusively serious prison time and loss of fortunes for their mistakes (accidental or otherwise) this corrosion will go on. P.s. to the downvoters: please provide a comment including how any one of the above items does not erode trust in authority

philjohn 4y ago
You fail to account for the rise in the (mostly) right wing grifters who make money from being contrarian.
- passwordoops 4y ago
  And everyone who uses this argument fails to account for the fact that grifters are a symptom of the problem and only enabled by the loss of trust in the first place
bad_username 4y ago
This is spot on. An average person will, consciously or not, perform a risk/benefit assessment for important decisions such as vaccination. But they may not have necessary resources to engage in deep research, and therefore must employ the traditional shortcut - trust. Trust is the most valuable asset an authority can have, but it was squandered with lightning speed by governments and corporations through mixed messaging, censorship of competent voices, and corruption.

philjohn 4y ago

You fail to account for the rise in the (mostly) right wing grifters who make money from being contrarian.

passwordoops 4y ago
And everyone who uses this argument fails to account for the fact that grifters are a symptom of the problem and only enabled by the loss of trust in the first place

bad_username 4y ago

This is spot on. An average person will, consciously or not, perform a risk/benefit assessment for important decisions such as vaccination. But they may not have necessary resources to engage in deep research, and therefore must employ the traditional shortcut - trust. Trust is the most valuable asset an authority can have, but it was squandered with lightning speed by governments and corporations through mixed messaging, censorship of competent voices, and corruption.