This comment perfectly explains why Brexit has left the UK's young feeling so devastated

[tblue37]

55. +1. The problem with experts is that you need to have a solid, wide ranging foundation

in general knowledge as well as well developed critical thinking skills to assess the credentials of those who are either identified by others or self-proclaimed as experts. Even then accomplishing such an assessment is often difficult and time consuming, because doing so might well involve research of a sort that amounts to an unguided course of study in the subject area(s) involved. Since the study is self-directed, there is no guarantee that you are getting your information from appropriate and trustworthy sources without having someone who better understands it (you know, an "expert" of sorts) to direct your study and fill in where you encounter informational gaps.

Modern life is built on incredibly complex bodies of information and interpretation. No one can master enough knowledge and wisdom in everything to be able to figure out which "experts" to trust in the innumerable fields of study or about the innumerable issues that we must make decisions about. And most of those subjects or issues are so complex that there is frequently honest disagreement among those who are best informed about the matter, and of course there is also plenty of room for those who have dishonest, self-serving motives to muddy the water by pushing misinformation and propaganda.

Besides the fact that information provided by both real and fake experts has often turned out to be wrong, and often disastrously (Viet Nam, Thalidomide, look-say reading programs, and any number of other unfortunate situations), there is also the fact that our population as a whole has been miseducated, relentlessly misinformed and propagandized, distracted by bread and circuses, and kept busy and exhausted by scrambling for economic survival, so they have little time, inclination, or ability to undertake the vetting of the constant streams of advice that flows from the experts in so many important fields and about so many important issues.

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ON EDIT: Don't forget, either, that our whole culture encourages people to believe that their opinion on ANY subject is just as good as anyone else's, no matter how little they know about the subject.