Credentialism and appeals to clout
I'm observing a trend that seems to be increasing in frequency lately. In comment sections and discussion forums, many people fall into two modes:
Mode A: If you agree with them, they accept whatever you say without questioning your reasoning nor requiring any receipts or sources.
Mode B: If you disagree with them, unless you can prove you have credentials in that field and also have a lot of clout, no matter how well formulated your points or how good your sources, no civil discussion will be had. You simply lack credentials and clout and so must be there to "disturb the peace", so to speak, and most likely got all your opinions from an influencer anyway and so all your arguments can be disregarded wholesale.
To be clear I'm observing this among other people and not just with my own comments or posts.
There has always been an element of this online, in my experience. Confirmation bias is not new, and is a fundamental human trait. But this seems different in scope to me because it's no longer just in relation to difficult and complex topics, it's even down to simple verifiable things like "this hardware has these specifications" where both parties can verify the information without needing credentials to do so.
It seems to me like this got worse during the covid years, when we were told to "trust the science" (never trust "science"; trust the scientific method) and appeals to authority were forced upon us from all sides. Even though in most cases the fundamental intention was good, it seems to me that this "broke" many people's reasoning capabilities. They seem to have started thinking that truth must be passed down by those with credentials, the very antithesis to the scientific method.
And now it feels like it's seeped into every kind of discourse, even when it's about entirely benign topics like hobbies. This combined with a sort of Cartesian crisis due to mass proliferation of cheaply generated fake information -- from AI text to AI imagery and video -- seems to have made quite a few people revert to basic instinctual reactions to counter points: To assume the worst of every actor that doesn't agree with their existing views up front.
I must say I'm worried where this might be going.