Before the Snowden leaks, it was generally considered to be a conspiracy theory, that the NSA hacks allmost everyone, ignoring any law. But to technical people

Before the Snowden leaks, it was generally considered to be a conspiracy theory, that the NSA hacks allmost everyone, ignoring any law. But to technical people, it was a sound theory, that proofed out to be right. That's the difference between a theory that lizard people invented Covid, or that Kubrick shot the moon landing. Those theories fall apart very quickly, if you apply logic. So I am no fan of appeal to authority arguments. If the experts are real experts, then they can use logic, to simply show where the layperson's arguments are flawed, where it is missing context or deep understanding of the field and point in the right direction. But if they cannot - then maybe the layperson has a point.