“In modern life outside of the academy, however, arguments and debates have no external review. Facts come and go as people find… — Thomas M. Nichols Life Copy Share Image
“More important and more relevant to the death of expertise, however, is that conspiracy theories are deeply attractive to people who have… — Thomas M. Nichols Complicated world Copy Share Image
“This is why the collapse of the relationship between experts and citizens is a dysfunction of democracy itself. The abysmal literacy, both… — Thomas M. Nichols Democracy Copy Share Image
“Conspiracy theories, by contrast, are frustrating precisely because they are so intricate. Each rejoinder or contradiction only produces a more complicated theory.… — Thomas M. Nichols Conspiracy theories Copy Share Image
“The Internet, however, is nothing like a library. Rather, it’s a giant repository where anyone can dump anything, from a first folio… — Thomas M. Nichols Internet Copy Share Image
“In a passage often cited by Western conservatives and especially loved by American libertarians, the Austrian economist F. A. Hayek wrote in… — Thomas M. Nichols Copy Share Image
“As the philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote in a 1928 essay, laypeople must evaluate expert claims by exercising their own careful logic as… — Thomas M. Nichols Doubt Copy Share Image
“Colleges are supposed to be the calm environment in which educated men and women determine what’s true and what’s false, and where… — Thomas M. Nichols Men and women Copy Share Image
“Conspiracy theories are also a way for people to give context and meaning to events that frighten them. Without a coherent explanation… — Thomas M. Nichols Conspiracy theories Copy Share Image
“Not only do increasing numbers of laypeople lack basic knowledge, they reject fundamental rules of evidence and refuse to learn how to… — Thomas M. Nichols Copy Share Image
“In 1787, Benjamin Franklin was supposedly asked what would emerge from the Constitutional Convention being held in Philadelphia. “A republic,” Franklin answered,… — Thomas M. Nichols Constitutional convention Copy Share Image
“The most obvious problem is that the freedom to post anything online floods the public square with bad information and half-baked thinking.… — Thomas M. Nichols Conspiracy theories Copy Share Image
“The tendency to bring up Nazi Germany in any argument inspired Godwin’s Law and the related reductio ad Hiterlum. The deeply entrenched… — Thomas M. Nichols Nazi germany Copy Share Image
“These are dangerous times. Never have so many people had so much access to so much knowledge and yet have been so… — Thomas M. Nichols Education Copy Share Image
“Many of the people who campaign against established knowledge are otherwise adept and successful in their daily lives. In some ways, it… — Thomas M. Nichols Ignorance Copy Share Image
“Why can’t people simply accept these differences in knowledge or competence? This is an unreasonable question, since it amounts to saying “Why… — Thomas M. Nichols Smart people Copy Share Image
“Arguing at length with a conspiracy theorist is not only fruitless but sometimes dangerous, and I do not recommend it. It’s a… — Thomas M. Nichols Copy Share Image
“Democracy, as practiced in the United States in the early twenty-first century, has become a resentful, angry business. The fragile egos of… — Thomas M. Nichols Business Copy Share Image
“Most causes of ignorance can be overcome, if people are willing to learn. Nothing, however, can overcome the toxic confluence of arrogance,… — Thomas M. Nichols Ignorance Copy Share Image
“It was probably inevitable that the anti-intellectualism of American life would invade college campuses, but that is no reason to surrender to… — Thomas M. Nichols American life Copy Share Image
“Thabo Mbeki, then the president of South Africa, seized on the idea that AIDS was caused not by a virus but by… — Thomas M. Nichols Poor health Copy Share Image
“There is no way around the reality that students are too often wasting their money and obtaining the illusion of an education… — Thomas M. Nichols Education Copy Share Image
“None of us is a Da Vinci, painting the Mona Lisa in the morning and designing helicopters at night. That’s as it… — Thomas M. Nichols Ignorance Copy Share Image
“In this hypercompetitive media environment, editors and producers no longer have the patience—or the financial luxury—to allow journalists to develop their own… — Thomas M. Nichols Money Copy Share Image
“While expertise isn’t dead, however, it’s in trouble. Something is going terribly wrong. The United States is now a country obsessed with… — Thomas M. Nichols Copy Share Image
