We’re looking at a collapse of reference to expertise
I think this much might be true, and I think there is a single meme responsible for a large part of the collapse. That is the “think for yourself, don’t be a sheep” meme. Problem is that everyone likes this meme. I’m sure it’s popular on LW too. And, of course, there are healthy ways to “think for yourself”. But if you tell someone not to be a sheep, and they start rejecting reasonable experts in favor of their intuitions, you can’t really act surprised.
Note that general meanness and tribalism do not explain this collapse well, because some of the experts are in your tribe. Hedonism might explain why Bob isn’t referring to experts, but it does not explain why he isn’t demanding for Alice to refer to them.
From the linked fb post on memetic collapse:
I think this much might be true, and I think there is a single meme responsible for a large part of the collapse. That is the “think for yourself, don’t be a sheep” meme. Problem is that everyone likes this meme. I’m sure it’s popular on LW too. And, of course, there are healthy ways to “think for yourself”. But if you tell someone not to be a sheep, and they start rejecting reasonable experts in favor of their intuitions, you can’t really act surprised.
Note that general meanness and tribalism do not explain this collapse well, because some of the experts are in your tribe. Hedonism might explain why Bob isn’t referring to experts, but it does not explain why he isn’t demanding for Alice to refer to them.