“I trust the experts”

These days, everyone has a trusted source of information. The “official” sources are promoted with all the convenience of 5G transmissions and fibre optic cable, but NOT the “unofficial” sources.

In polite company.

I recently enjoyed a beer with a golfer on the lakeside patio of our local golf course. During the conversation, I carefully asked if he believes that the burning of fossil fuels producing greenhouse gases was a sufficiently serious matter to justify carbon taxation and the extensive regulations that manage human activities.

He replied that he trusts the professionals. If they believe those measures are required, he has no reason to oppose them.

The climate change discussion ended there. It became clear that it was a topic he wished to avoid when he quickly shifted to another line of discussion.

Who are the professionals he trusts?

In our discussion, he mentioned news topics from information sources like the Globe and Mail, CBC and CNN. The journalists employed by those corporate media enterprises are well trained to deliver their content in a professional manner. They are nothing if they are not “slick”.

The term “designated expert” came to mind.

From my own experience, many media pundits and public officials promote names and quotes of people who we should trust as sources of “authority” on the topic. Names, articles and YouTube clips of these experts in the climate change realm include Al Gore and Greta Thunberg, for example. More recently, none other than Antonio Gutierrez pronounced the era of global boiling with the ‘expertise’ and authority of a typical head of state.

The professionals I trust.

The Coved-19 crisis supplanted climate change as the more potent fear-generating topic since 2020, but it was short-lived.

Pandemics come and go. They don’t have “the legs” to lead us into future generations like climate change does.

Dr. Byram Bridle is a professional I trust, and so does the Japanese government. He is presenting this week in the Japanese Parliament at the International Crisis Summit 6 . I am immensely proud that they chose him over some “expert” public official from Ottawa. Notice that a Google search for this event only turned up the link provided and it’s all in Japanese.

I Will Be Presenting in the Japanese Parliament this Week

I would have liked to introduce Dr. Bridle to my new beer-drinking buddy, but there are some topics to avoid “in polite company”. Byram’s credentials in vaccine research and immunology are among them. More’s the pity.

I wish Byram every success in Japan and look forward to seeing him at the Vitamin D conference in Toronto on November 1, 2024 hosted by the Canadian Citizens Care Alliance.

Call me old fashioned.

I prefer my trusted professionals to be expert in the subject matter domain of the discussion subject at hand.

Since the explosion of the Information Age, we are all struggling with too much “input” and not enough “bandwidth and processing capacity” to synthesize the data into confident and competent critical thinking.

Not trusting our own “processing power”, it’s easier to outsource our critical thinking to “the professionals” and “the experts”.

When citizens rely primarily on a few sources of “official news”, they tend to hear about the “designated experts” and not men like Byram Bridle.

I applaud Pierre Poilievre’s commitment to “defund the CBC” if he becomes Prime Minister and leader of a majority Conservative Parliament. I think this move may lead to more Canadians to seek information sources that reveal the real experts rather than the designated ones.

Maybe critical thinking may enjoy a revival too.

Wouldn’t that be nice.