Right... imagine handing over control of society, the economy, and more to computer scientists because of a computer crisis that is killing people at scale (hospital ransomware, a virus that spreads via Bluetooth and causes cell phones to explode and kill people, a virus that causes car accidents, all of them simultaneously, etc.) Imagine Dr. Stallman becoming a new public figurehead that wields incredible power over the lives of Americans. At his word, any industry can be shut down overnight in order to save lives. At his word people must carry their phones around in faraday cages or wear tinfoil lined hats for legitimate scientific reasons. At his word, all people must stop playing online video games if he deems it necessary. Seems absurd, but that's essentially what happened here.
What happened here is a fairly cynical culture of message paternalism that didn’t survive contact with reality and, frankly, needs an overhaul in my opinion. I don’t think it will get that overhaul unless people ask for it. In the meantime, its results speak for themselves.
[1]: https://www.jhsph.edu/academics/degree-programs/master-of-pu...
And yet Dr. Fauci became the US public health figurehead despite not having a degree in public health. Dr. Fauci has a BA in classics and an MD, and has spent his career specializing in immunology. Shouldn't we have picked someone with actual experience and background in public health and not someone who has specialized their career in studying viruses? Fauci is first and foremost a researcher, not a public health figurehead who is good at communicating with said public.
there's an unlimited supply of such 'experts' willing to trade message for power.
we the people must question and challenge the so-called experts publicly. that would constrain the mediopolitical narrative in a way that reflects the general wisdom of the crowds. where we go wrong is allowing the mediopolitical machine to lead with a self-serving narrative which preemptively correlate opinions along their preferred axis rather than the collectively wise one.
it's a age-old battle but one we must continue to wage.
Attempting to tell people the details would conflict with the idea of a soundbite: final advice from an expert. Which is a bit unfortunate, because at the expert level a lot of knowledge is not final, it's a discussion with nuances that change as evidence is produced.
It's probably not great that world has ended up with no attention span, but here we are.