I think you might find that a non-trivial subset, if not outright majority, do deferring their opinions to people who know these things.

They often get information and analysis from the news, their government, and that "one guy who is good at computers". I use pgp and gpg, I use ssh, and I am a programmer. I know very little about how cryptography works, but likely enough to appraise someone else's ability to shepherd such discussion and policy.

So what heuristic would you apply here? I love the EFF but they have not succeeded in any mainstream endeavor. I do not mean to belittle their accomplishments, but what percent of people reading this article know what the EFF is?