>Epistemic trust essentially means assuming good faith unless shown otherwise. If societies didn't have that, they wouldn't function Having lived in an authori

>Epistemic trust essentially means assuming good faith unless shown otherwise. If societies didn't have that, they wouldn't function Having lived in an authoritarian state where everyone had pure "eat or get eaten" mentality I strongly disagree. Epistemic trust is not a requirement for a society to function. It is much safer to assume everyone is there to get you (by scamming, misinformation, theft, or plans to hurt you physically just for the fun of it) than otherwise. Having tgat mindset has never stopped me from trusting people that have shown themselves to be trustworthy.