French Voice Jury Marvel at Orthodox Seminarians' Breathtaking Performance, What is the Single Most Important, Most Beautiful Thing in Orthodox Christianity? His work deals with issues involving Russia, nuclear weapons, and national security affairs. I would say the two charges you can really lay at the feet of experts is that they tend to lack empathy because to them they live in a world where everything is obvious; they deal in a world of data, or they deal in a world of ideas. There are places where we just don't know stuff.DEVIN STEWART: I think you talked about how ridiculous the day trader is in the book as an example. In the beginning, there was the Bomb. Protesters outside the Texas State Capitol building in 2021 . It is an expansion of a 2014 article published in The Federalist. Americas not at war was a common refrain among the troops. "DEVIN STEWART: Okay, same title. Ukraine needs any weapon its troops can learn to use, including tanks, to hold the line on the international order and the worlds safety. Just the other day the president's national security advisor, who is a very intelligent guyhe's a three-star general; he's written a book; he's a thoughtful personbut when he says things like, "Well, you know, communicating our goals and issues to Russia is just like talking to any other country," as a Russia expert I can tell you that's just wrong. Katherine Hu contributed to this newsletter. I think the Russians will try to manipulate the White House into moving further and further away from NATO, perhaps without the White House even realizing that that's what is happening, because the Russians are way better at this game than anybody in Washington in power right now. https://t.co/FFboS7AVzl, Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) July 31, 2021. Protesters outside the Texas State Capitol building in 2021. Tom Nichols asked Twitchy to do a post on his take on Gov. But yes, 2016 was the year in which the anti-expertise or the death-of-expertise phenomenon became weaponized in politics.DEVIN STEWART: Since a lot of people seem to sympathize with the hate toward experts and people who areI remember Rush Limbaugh used to call them "pointy-headed intellectuals." It was me. As big an ass as I would be if I planted a question on a news show and then ratted out the host who made it seem like a random viewer for making the question seem nastier than the one I planted? Why? Is there any hope?TOM NICHOLS: Yes. If you cannot grasp that, I don't know what to tell you. People always freak out about plane crashes, and understandably so. Breitbart claimed I was breaking that law. DEVIN STEWART: Is there a danger that Russia might take advantage of perceived ignorance in the White House, like Khrushchev did with Kennedy?TOM NICHOLS: I have that fear very strongly. De Tocqueville talks about it, that it's this kind of egalitarian streak in American culture, and it does lapse into anti-intellectualism. Why Monarchy Is Better For Christians than Democracy, Want to Be More Masculine? Seraphim Rose, UKRAINE: Homosexual Movement Is Key to Understanding the War, I Wasn't a Debt-Free Virgin Before Marriage - Here's What I Learned the Hard Way, Russian Beauty and Christian Fashion - It's Stunning, Why Russian Women Still Cover Their Heads in Church (Hint: It's in the Bible). My mother, for one. Its late. Submit them on camera here by replying to this tweet on Twitter & you may just end up on @FoxNews. But maybe you should rewatch Minority Report insteadSteven Spielbergs prescient 2002 thriller is as chilling as ever (and widely available on streaming services). Thats an awfully elitist attitude, Tom. So, for those keeping tabs on tonight's @FoxNews soap opera:@BretBaier claims to read a random viewer question that links travel bans and illegal immigration@ellencarmichael admits it was her, not a random viewer i.e., a planted question, but not about immigration. "DEVIN STEWART: You should. There are some people, Smiley said at a dinner among young recruits to the Secret Service, who, when their past is threatened, get frightened of losing everything they thought they had, and perhaps everything they thought they were as well. Afghanistan was different. How should we be thinking about what comes next? If they chose to leave, they would be cowards who abandoned Afghanistan. Read this review of Tom Nichols' new book "Our Own Worst Enemy" - and why writer Oliver Traldi disagrees with Nichols' idea of democracy. Then he said "hey, I'm just asking what our viewers are asking. The review goes on to cite Nichols' author notes as one of the highlights of the volume as it points the reader to "more illuminating books and articles. Who argues with molecular biologists? Shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, the author John le Carrs most famous creation, the fictional British spy George Smiley, reflected on a career spent fighting a now-vanquished enemy. It didnt use to be this way. I could barely lift it.). America Is 'Committing Suicide' By Allowing Trannies in the Military (Russian TV News). Other conservatives who spoke privately and sometimes publicly of Trump with utter contempt in 2016 buckled that November. Here's Why, Russias Christian Renaissance Explains her Current World Role, Russian Artist Finds Out He is Dying, Paints 1000 Images of Christ. So, regular people cant have the same concerns as a political consultant? Not that they care that intensely about it; as the foreign-policy scholar Stephen Biddle recently observed, the war is practically an afterthought in U.S. politics. Well, that phenomenon actually has a scientific basis called the Dunning-Kruger effect, which is that the people who are the least competent at something have the greatest tendency to overestimate their competence at it.DEVIN STEWART: That's because they lack the intelligence to be self-aware?TOM NICHOLS: They lack a particular skill called metacognition, which is the ability to step back and see that you're doing something poorly. Seraphim Rose Discusses the Jewish Question - Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Englishman Drives Off Satanists and Rescues a 1000-Year-Old Church, When Knights Surrender Their Sword The Problem of Effeminate Men, Married at Age 16, Has 11 Children, Loves Her Husband, Lives in Russia, VIDEO: A Legendary American Monk Who Inspired Christians in Russia - Fr. You've witnessed this around the world, as well, in Asia and Europe, this phenomenon of scorn toward the elite and toward expertise. Its a great song. "DEVIN STEWART: So the ancient wisdom of "know thyself," [Ancient Greek aphorism] maybe the ancients were onto something back then?TOM NICHOLS: There is a reason we should all still be reading Shakespeare, exactly. Why do people suddenly believe that they are the experts?TOM NICHOLS: The immediate default explanation is always the Internet, but I don't think thats right. So when Fox News Bret Baier solicited questions on Twitter for his interview with CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, Carmichael offered up a question about the travel restrictions: Tonight on #SpecialReport Ill sit down with @CDCDirector Dr. Rochelle Walensky & Im looking for your questions. And all the guys in the bar are going, "Yeah, you're awesome, dude. Bidens policy, of course, is not that different from Trumps, despite all the partisan howling about it from Republicans. (Im part of that last group. I promise Ill stop talking about the EU travel ban when they reverse it. Well, and also, that Baiee added an inflammatory linking of two issues that the original questioner says did not have in the question which that we would not have known because the question was laundered through the host. The experts on things like Southeast Asia and insurgency, they were saying, "Look, this is a lot harder than it looks." Have you seen Breitbart? a colleague asked. 803 were here. But mostlyI would say overwhelmingly the letters I've gotten are from professionals, from doctors. Would you attribute this scorn to the rise of populism worldwide? We want to reunite with our family kept apart by an unscientific, cruel travel ban. Many Americans will bristle at the idea that this defeat overseas can be laid at their feet. The problem is not the Courts decision. As you pointed out, he is drawing attention to this cruel, unscientific travel ban, so I cant be that mad about it. That summer, I sat down with my wife and members of my family. Well never know for certain, because American political and military leaders only tried pieces of several strategies, never a coherent whole, mostly to keep the costs and casualties down and to keep the war off the front pages and away from a public that didnt want to hear about it. "DEVIN STEWART: "Nailed it. Choices made at the ballot box reflect the values and beliefs of the people casting those votes, which is why Election Day itself is often less important than what took place on all the other days before it. Here we are again, trying to make our way around nuclear terms and concepts as war rages in the middle of Europe. Has anyone brought up the point that any question submitted through Twitter would not likely pass @RadioFreeToms average viewer test since most people on Twitter talking about politics are hyper partisan and many work in politics? Tom, I hope that whatever is so clearly troubling you is remedied soon. First, insofar as that populist fever seems to have overtaken people running down blind alleys. DEVIN STEWART: Cliff Clavin.TOM NICHOLS: Everybody knows that guy. Yes, the founders of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project are now taking in lots of donationsbut that was after burning personal and financial bridges to the Republican Party that sustained them and built their handsome homes over the years. Never have so many people had access to so much knowledge, and yet been so resistant to learning anything. Kristi Noem going to Sturgis while Kabul falls so here it is Rep. Adam Schiff takes to TikTok to cry about being kicked off the. A lot of folks have asked me if I wrote this about the election, and I really didn't; this goes back about three-and-a-half years, to early 2014. The problem was that, once the initial euphoria wore off, the public wasnt much interested in it. The second thing is that because lay people are so hostile to expertise, experts go into a kind of defensive crouch about ever admitting their mistakes. "TOM NICHOLS: Right. In the meantime, American citizens will separate into their usual camps and identify all of the obvious causes and culprits except for one: themselves. 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The president is talking about meeting with Putin very soon. As a lifelong conservative choosing Crooked Hillary over the Swamp Drainer, I received a short burst of interest, especially from talk radio. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. I am able to ask a question of my government via a reporter soliciting public input for questions, the same as anyone else from any profession could. pic.twitter.com/EFrJiPntsj, Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) August 1, 2021. @redsteeze backs conspiracy theorist and projection artist Tom Nichols into a moral and intellectual corner https://t.co/JCFkLsEGUr, Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 2, 2021. I am too scarred by the horrific outcome of the 2016 election to count any chickens, no matter how alive and clucking they might seem. By Tom Nichols. The Russian president is frantic and lashing out in defeat. Tom is related to Jill Renea Nichols and Amanda Rea Broome as well as 2 additional people. Apr 22 Replying to @RadioFreeTom Leave out the lamb and we're good to go! For the first time in my life, I felt like a dissident. https://t.co/qIvLRlc7ir. And what if Trump wins? Some turned out to be as racist and authoritarian as Trump himself, while others merely confirmed that they were little more than vacuous opportunists who were capable of betraying the Constitution at will. Kabul has fallen. Just because Tom Nichols doesn't care doesn't mean no one else does. Your implication that I behaved unethically by tweeting a question to ask my government official is preposterous. I think it has to do with a sense of personal empowerment, of universal education, of course the presence of the Internet, and the segmenting of the global media into niche publications. Dont take my word for it that things have changed. [7], Stuart Vyse in Skeptical Inquirer "strongly recommends" the book and says that "[o]ne of the best things about the book is its apolitical stance" and finds "very little to quibble with" despite having different political leanings than the author.[8]. We will continue to update information on Tom Nichols's parents. 212-838-4120 This kind of affirmation of cultural norms can be a lot more powerful than any law, and I suspect that the gun-culture extremists know it. My question is, who are the Russia people? Today, many claim that they did not know what the military or the government were really up to, and they point to The Washington Posts attempt to create a Pentagon Papers vibe around a set of revelations that were not nearly as shocking as the secrets of Vietnamor should not have been, anyway, to anyone who read a newspaper during the past two decades. His execution of this resolve, however, looks to be a tragic and shameful mess and will likely be a case study in policy schools for years to come. Russell Brand was challenged to give examples of MSNBC pushing misinformation (that was a BAD idea), On anniversary of Stalins death Reuters reminds us the USSR dictator was a polarizing figure, Biden approached reporters but ran off after hearing the first question, Adam Schiff launches into a projection-filled fit of nervousness after Tucker Carlson talks J6 tapes, People are skeptical of what ex-Dem Rep says long time Fla. 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Jamaal Bowmans care package for Ron DeSantis definitely delivers on BS and, Chris Hayes bellyaching about Elon Musk buying Twitter and letting the poors/normies be heard BACKFIRES, will maintain all existing travel restrictions at this point, California Do Not Sell My Personal Information, Its been three days, and Tom Nichols *still* thinks Ellen Carmichael conspired with Bret Baier to ask Rochelle Walensky a planted question. I think experts in other fields tend to want to do that out of the public eye because theyre so afraidand I think this is where it goes back to lay peoplethat lay people will say: "Aha! So, to recap, Baier asked a planted question, added something the person who planted it claims she didn't intend, while a friend of the planter then says she *did* intend it. Sorry most of all to Tom Nichols, who, no matter how far hes fallen, can always find a deeper bottom to the barrel. I was pointing my criticism at Fox; only *you* keep trying to make it about you. But first, here are three great new stories from The Atlantic. We didn't really understand it." She cant restore sanity to the GOP. Podcast music: Blindhead and Mick Lexington. For my own part, I naively thought at the start of this madness that no one would much care what I said about Trump, at least any more than they did about my previous writing on politics. I think a good example here is the airlines. A serious peoplethe kind of people we once werewould have made serious choices, long before this current debacle was upon them. Watch. That's kind of a hedgehog; that's somebody who knows something very deeply and very narrowly, and that does not mean that you're good at everything. Nichols has also complained about a recent Zito story for which she interviewed Bethany Mandel, because apparently the fact that Mandel is married to Washington Examiner editor Seth Mandel and therefore cant have widely shared opinions on parenting and homeschooling. Spoiler: Its the people who refused easily accessible vaccinations.). They didnt cover their cars in bumper stickers about them, they didnt fly flags about them, they didnt pose for dumb pictures with them. https://t.co/fuiST5S7BB. Then, that summer, I wrote a piece on how I became a Never Trumper for The New York Times Magazine. It's right there on his timeline. We're just not. Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 31, 2021. (1/2) https://t.co/2BfNkuAtao, I didnt bring up illegal immigration. He said point-blank: "The experts are no good. Like many famous people and celebrities, Tom Nichols keeps his personal life private. Another example I can give you is when I went to a golf coach once. As we approach Election Day, my career and my constitutional rights remain intact. Naval War College and an instructor at the Harvard Extension School. The house is airy and bright, and Lauren and Cameron, fingers laced, wander the rooms imagining the life they might have there together. The speaker pays off his debts to the extremist base. Disgusting. Pegoda praised Nichols for not conflating expertise with credentials, and, while avowing that the book has some shortcomings, it has the "potential to start more important conversations". Several years ago, Tom Nichols started writing a book about ignorance and unreason in American public discourseand then he watched it come to life all around him, in ways starker than he had imagined. What are they saying?TOM NICHOLS: They mostly are from professionals. 170 East 64th Street Early in 2016, I said (in a conservative magazine, The Federalist, that has since fallen to the Trumpist fever) that I would take Hillary Clinton over Trump. With the localized and the national effect of this scorn toward expertise you probably get this question all the time, but does this attitude that you're describing in your book partly or fully explain where we are today in American politics?TOM NICHOLS: It does partly, and this is where I should also point out that I don't speak for the Navy or the War College. TOM NICHOLS: Same title. Now that it looks like Trump is headed for defeat, some Republicans feel safe to criticize him again. People who have talked about talking to him just say it's impossible to brief him because he just doesn't have a very long attention span. The election of Petr Pavel is important to Czechsand to Americans. In the author's words, his goal . They would today be trying to learn something from nearly 2,500 dead service members and many more wounded. Nor did Americans ever consider whether or when Afghanistan, as a source of terrorist threats to the U.S., had been effectively neutralized. The Foreign Affairs piece from last March, if folks want to take a look at that, is a digested version of the book; that is kind of the book in microcosm.DEVIN STEWART: What's the title of The Federalist one?TOM NICHOLS: It was called "The Death of Expertise. But behind the scenes, that day was less dreamy than it looked. There are two major flaws in the book. The purpose of my life was to end the time I lived in., With a bit more pensiveness, Smiley adds: Or perhaps our troubles are just beginning.. That's for sure. we're going to run right back into that same problem we ran into in the 1960s.DEVIN STEWART: That's a very subtle and important nuance there.TOM NICHOLS: Absolutely.DEVIN STEWART: The clich is "a little bit of knowledge is very dangerous. Think about the American foreign policy establishment. But because I teach at a military institution, I am a Defense Department employee and I am therefore bound by the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from using their positions for political purposes. As my colleague David Frum has put it: For good or ill, the Biden policy on Afghanistan is the same as the Trump policy, only with less lying.. How Reality Dating Shows Stoke Racial Tensions. Boys were drafted and sent into battle, sometimes in missions never intended to be revealed to the public. There were always publications around the world that catered to the conservative viewpoint or the liberal viewpoint, but now we really have developed international outlets that are almost like alternative reality viewpoints. https://t.co/AgFflqhmZ6, Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 2, 2021, They keep saying that who it came from doesnt matter while completely ignoring the part where Baier lied about it. They demanded my arrest. Right on brand. This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. MARCH 11, 2022, 6 AM ET. The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters is a 2017 nonfiction book by Tom Nichols. Hi Tom! And that had really just been a kind ofI don't have a blog anymore because I think blogs are part of the problem in the modern world. As they did with all of us in the Never Trump camp, the presidents most fanatical supporters accused me of outright treason. Honest to God-a real viewer q. No one turned to the American people during the fall of Saigon and said, This is on you.. After Tom completed his high school education, he attended Boston University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Political science. Use your critical thinking skills. And that's what the Dunning-Kruger study managed to finally prove, is that the people who are the least intelligent or least aware of, again, where the envelope is, are the most likely to walk off and say, "Nailed it. I used to think of myself as a gun-control conservativeI supported both the right to own firearms and the interest of the state to limit that rightbut Americas gun culture isnt about rights. Liberal democracy is about much more than that. Back in 1959, the country singer Marty Robbins wrote a ballad about a murderous outlaw who met his well-deserved end at the hands of a handsome young Arizona Ranger who was carrying the Big Iron on his hip. (The song was supposedly inspired by a weapon Robbins saw in a shop, but there is some question about whether the Big Iron was a real gun.). TOM NICHOLS: Let me give a shout-out to my publisher and say they were wonderful through the writing of this book. I am a professor. Just because Tom Nichols doesnt care doesnt mean no one else does. Theyve earned it.) But courage exercised only when the coast is clear is not courage; it is opportunism. Baier did nothing wrong. For most of us, media appearances came only with a ride to the studio and free coffee. It was a good question. I do political/policy PR on totally unrelated topics so Im therefore ineligible to petition my government on this one that impacts my family. We believed otherwise, as a nation, because we wanted to believe it. Across the world today, there is active hostility towards experts, says Tom Nichols of the U.S. He is speaking to them and for them, and declaring that he and his kind are better and have a right to rule over us. Tom Nichols dissects the dangerous antipathy to expertise. Yes, but the point is to command the viewer's unthinking assent by implying that "many ordinary people are thinking this. A political scientist who has taught for more than a decade in the Harvard . What to do about the deadly misfits among us? Listen. Rather than people even challenging me or arguing with me about important issues, people were simply saying, "No, no, let me explain your area of specialization back to you," and that, I think, is a new wrinkle.DEVIN STEWART: Is it because they have access to more information on the Internet? Some sent messages telling me that they looked forward to my official execution or other versions of my untimely death. Can you explain that phenomenon? He blames trends in higher education (such as focus on self-esteem and tolerance of narcissism leading to grade inflation and over-confidence in one's own abilities), the Internet, and the explosion of media options for the anti-expertise and anti-intellectual sentiment which he sees as being on the rise. Her profession has nothing to do with it. Do they have a point?TOM NICHOLS: Sure.DEVIN STEWART: What is the point?TOM NICHOLS: Look, we live in a world that moves pretty fast. Therefore, you're wrong about everything. In The Death of Expertise, Nichols condemns what he describes as the many forces trying to undermine the authority of experts in the United States. The short pieces we all wrotemuch like this onegenerated a small fee that could pay for a nice dinner and maybe a bottle of wine. A shroud is settling over the dreams many of us had at the end of the 20th century. Americas at the mall.. The senior figures there responded immediately. The US Outspends Russia 10X On Military, But They Are Equals. Tom, thanks for coming.TOM NICHOLS: Thanks for having me, Devin.DEVIN STEWART: So what is the death of expertise?TOM NICHOLS: It's really the death of the idea of expertise.