So Much Fake Stuff
20th February 2021
Like the electrical power in Texas, public trust in our officials and our institutions is down at crisis levels. And much like the Texas power shortage, this public trust shortage is widely regarded as a spontaneous thing. We like to think of it in passive-voice terms, with no subject to the sentence, no one bearing any responsibility for cratering the quantity of this essential asset. Of course we’re not thinking of it that way because it’s true; we’re thinking of it that way because any inspection of who is responsible, would prove inconvenient to those who brandish the power of telling us what opinions to have.
These crises are hurting people though. Others are doing a better job of looking into the cause of the Texas problem than I could. I shall leave it to them. They’re closer. But on the other problem, the public trust problem, I’m square in the middle of it. I’m a member of the public. And I do not trust. I have reasons not to trust, so let’s look into them because I’m not alone.