Comment by jonnycat
2 years ago
I think there's another, more frightening takeaway from this - people are losing trust in everything. While you can argue on a case by case basis that it's all for good reason, it pretty much devolves into nihilism. More and more people are unwilling to believe anything that, for example, the "media" says - regardless of how tame and reasonable the claim might be.
I think we've been spoiled and lulled into trusting too much. While I agree it leads to nihilistic behavior, I think enough people will simply be more careful and companies will have to get better, including the technical part that the top comment mentions. Similarly, I think we've been too willing to believe anything the media or advertisers say. I'm in my 40s now and I look back and feel embarrassed at all the things media and ads told me that I believed.
While it's true people are losing trust, it's because companies, or more realistically, the people running those companies, are no longer trustworthy. I don't want news "claims," I want investigative reporting that presents multiple facets of an argument, conclusions are ok, so I can understand, integrate, and draw my own conclusions.
Robert Putnum saw this coming a decade ago and was denounced as a Nazi for his research, which his critics couldn't refute but name calling was enough. Now a decade later, people are even more cowered and unable to even think about speaking the truth or somehow their souls will be destroyed. It's amazing how people can see it happening right in front of their faces and deny what their own senses are telling them.