Geoffrey MillerVerified account

If you allow the person stating a fact to tarnish the validity of that fact, perhaps the problem runs deeper than disagreement. Critical thought is what helps us sort fact from fiction. Appeal to authority or "trust worthiness" is just fallacious reasoning.

Forget unwarranted trust, look at the evidence. The amount of people that believe ridiculous conspiracies and deny obvious scientific facts is preposterous. The horrific consequences of curtailing free speech notwithstanding, should we trust them?

Wow. What if you trust some people, even most people. I can conceive of circumstances -as when people are running scared— that, say, a demagogue can exploit the moment for his own purposes (or Russia’s, as the case may be). Imagine that!