Massive shedding of trust is here.
When we go from sceptic to cynic, we believe nothing.
Government dignitaries, hospital mandarins, scientist oracles, billionaire CEO's, fact checker pontifs and more have lost gravitas and even lost all respect.
When we go from sceptic to cynic, we believe nothing we read or hear.
This makes us pawns in games others play
because we don't make timely distinctions between people in conflict, we fail to establish the relative value of one choice over another. The somewhat good guys are tarred by the somewhat evil guys brush.
And this makes us less dangerous to hard-ball players. While we harden ourselves somewhat against every claim, we become vulnerable to any bullldozer doctrine or scam that pushes hard.
The cynic's bubble is only shelter from small noxious affronts.
What touchstone will you use for truth, or to determine a degree of truth, or even to make an interim decision to trust someone until you get a better picture of what's happening? This has always been a key question but today it faces us urgently.
The internet has brought this forward. What people really said in private is often quickly heard in public and their hidden deeds from past years may be published promptly today. There is a lot of falseness, spin, and (in my view) evil doing. The same flood of news, mostly curated, may also bring cures to the problem.
I insist of hearing and seeing video of controversial statements and want it to be at least a few minutes long so I can evaluate the context and look for edits. I look to see what other people have said that triangulate with or oppose the controversial statement. On sites which promote thoughtful commentary written in paragraphs, I read sometimes hundreds of observations to get a better understanding. And thenb settle on a view. Even with this, I'm often blindsided and proven wrong, because some much of the information is data spun to entice and deceive. But it's all I've got and I'm sticking with it.
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