[DrTiTus]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

I think most people understand and recognise how the sophisticated infrastructure of our society is only held up by robust, effective expertise and that the cracks start to show pretty quickly if anyone is trying to fake it.

That's true. But I think we're starting to witness more and more cracks starting to show. The rise of information sharing (the internet) has allowed that. We can easily discuss subjects with people everywhere on the planet and get exposed to information (some valid, some invalid) that is not on the news. Some of the "cracks" that showed during COVID were when more information was coming out that we weren't allowed to talk about (leading to bans from social media) and we lost trust. A leader has to be trusted, otherwise they can't lead. We can only be effectively governed by consent.

However, there is an agenda, people with incentive and means to sow unreasonable doubt into our systems of knowledge, to question the legitimacy of institutions built on these systems without any legitimate basis.

I think more people are questioning the legitimacy of institutions because of the lack of trust, as a result of our leaders being caught out in their lies or nonsensical policies (eg you can't go to the toilet inside when you visit friends/family, the virus is literally hunting down the unvaccinated, this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, etc.). If you're being lied to by a person you are supposed to trust, is it easy to continue to trust them? If you point out it doesn't make sense, but you have to do it anyway, is that robust and effective leadership? For how long do people put up with nonsense before they say "enough is enough".

It's not a conspiracy, it's an aligning of values, where people notice what those with shared interests do and copy what they see as effective in maintaining those interests.

It's not a conspiracy - I'd probably say it's closer to "civil unrest" or "an uprising" or at the very least, again, a lack of trust in our institutions. Which is not the fault of the population, it's the fault of the leaders for causing it to happen. It's not Putin or Xi telling us that things don't make sense - it's obvious that some of the things which took place were nonsense.

I guess it's inevitable. Change is constant, these are always going to be some losing what they have in the churn, doing whatever they can to keep what they can.

We definitely live in interesting times. I don't think it's anti-intellectual at its core... it may be anti-establishment, or more specifically these days it's anti-WEF/globalism (which has not worked out well for many, yet enriched the few), and people are questioning how democracies sell out to unelected leaders from international organizations that want global control. Which is also not a conspiracy. We have democracy fed to us as the "best" option by our leaders, who then go and do things which are undemocratic. Cracks will appear when people find out, especially if it's not on the news and they find out accidentally, from people who, as you say, may have an agenda. Honesty and transparency shouldn't just be election campaign slogans. They should be values that are adhered to.