I said in my last post that during a pandemic it was vitally important that people trust their governments and their leaders.  The failure to have that has caused enormous harm. A lack of trust means public policy will not be effective and that can have immense harm. A very good example was the failure to get enough people to take vaccines, much of which was caused by people not trusting government ,health officials, corporations, or scientists.

Let me be clear about one thing, I am all in favour of distrust. After all, governments, businesses, academics, media, courts, and leaders of all sorts have done much to earn some real distrust.

You would have to be out of your mind not to distrust our leaders and institutions. Take corporations for example, when corporations pay scientists, spin doctors and ad agencies to sow distrust of science in order to slow the spread of  public policies, as corporations in the energy sector did in the case of climate change, robust distrust is entirely warranted. These corporations successfully managed to manufacture doubt in good science so that they could continue to earn profits for longer than they should have, while millions of people around the world were harmed by the delays. Those industries through their leaders’ behaviours, have earned distrust for businesses not only inside their sector, but actually, corporations in general.

Tobacco companies did exactly the same thing, by knowingly denying that their products were deadly, so that their profits could continue a little longer while people around the world were harmed as a result of their deceptions. Again, this was egregiously bad behaviour with which the public largely acquiesced.

Then there were the corporations that hid the addictive nature of the opioids they produced or were selling  for years so that they could continue to be sold while people around the world got seriously sick. Those leaders were guilty of serious malfeasance.

All of these were shockingly bad corporate citizens. There were many such loathsome campaigns. They brought all of capitalism into disrepute to such an extent that legitimate capitalist achievements have been smeared.  They have earned all the distrust they attract.

Governments have also participated in serious harms. For example, their acquiescence around the world in failing to seriously pursue corporations and individuals that hid their wealth and income in offshore accounts, thus robbing  government around the world of money they could have used to achieve their social goals, while at the same those same people often paid professionals to white wash or green wash their slimy business practices or persuade ordinary citizens to abandon worthwhile social goals.  When governments for decades granted massive subsidies to industries such as the energy sector, to inflict harm on society, or when they also for decades granted excessive and entirely unjustifiable tax breaks to the rich while vigorously squeezing the poor for every penny owed, they have earned distrust.  When governments or political leaders lied about the reality of the wars they started the way the American government did during the Vietnam, while young men and women sacrificed their lives or suffered horrendous injuries, government were rightfully entitled to all the distrust and disrespect they got.

All of these things and many more that could be mentioned, have ensured that distrust is genuinely justified—in some cases.

While I endorse distrust,  the lack of trust be rational. Not every action by every government or corporation should be distrusted blindly. I don’t support ludicrous versions of the truth such as absurd claims that there is an international cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who are drinking the blood of children. When the oppositional narrative of the distrusters reaches the levels of idiocy as it has done in the United States, we must categorically reject it. Distrust must be grounded on evidence, serious claims, and critical analysis. Rebels may criticize but blanket distrust is as blind as blind trust.

Distrust (just like trust) must be rational.