Tired of Experts

'We've had enough of experts'.  Remember that Michael Gove soundbite from back in the days of the Brexit referendum?  Well, I've decided that I've had enough of 'experts', too.  Not the sort of experts that Gove was annoyed with, (basically any economist, politician or academic that warned of the damage that Brexit would do to the UK economy - who been proven right, actually, which, I guess, is why they are experts), but those 'experts' who seem to have proliferated since Brexit.  You know the ones I mean: the ones who seem to spend all their time on social media regaling us with their 'expertise' on, well, everything.  Remember when, during the pandemic, they were experts on immunology and viruses, before rapidly turning their 'talents' to conflict analysis when Russia invaded Ukraine, then did the same for the Israel-Gaza crisis before turning their attention to Yemen and the Houthi rebels?  Of course you do - if you have a social media account then you'll have endured them, too.  It's not just social media, though.  You Tube these days is just full of videos about the war in Ukraine, the Houthis, Gaza, vaccines, Brexit, electric vehicles, climate change - just about  any issue, really - all put out by people presenting themselves as 'experts'.  Some of those behind these quasi-news channels claim dubious justifications for their 'expertise': they are minor league academics, ex-military, etc, - or so they claim.  But hey, I have a Master's in International Studies and .- a long time ago - once worked for the MoD as an intelligence analyst.  Which, I think, trumps any of these self-styled experts' 'qualifications.  I don't, however, feel the need to set myself up as an on-line expert, (for one thing, I'm well aware that my 'expertise' on international affairs is pretty much historical and these days I have no more insight into current issues than anybody else who watches the news and reads the papers).

They're worse than the bar room bores they so closely resemble.  Except that, unlike them, the on-line 'experts' can't be escaped simply by going home or even just moving to another bar.  They feel like they are everywhere, their 'opinions' assaulting you as soon as you open up an internet browser.  Increasingly, they like to style themselves as 'citizen journalists' or 'content creators', despite the fact that they adhere to no known journalistic standards and their 'content' is frequently entirely derivative and lacking any kind of substance.  Obviously, their aims are two-fold: to push their dubious personal agendas while, hopefully, making money from their 'content'.  I was cheered to learn that the Twitter-based ones, at least, don't seem to be achieving the latter.  In the wake of some You Tube 'personality' claiming that they had made huge amounts of money from posting a video on Twitter, all manner of those right-wing, Trump supporting, Nazi enabling 'content creators' and 'citizen journalists' were calling 'foul', claiming that it couldn't be true as they never made anything from their shit.  Possibly because they don't produce anything that anyone would want to pay to see, or, in their warped minds, because the liberal establishment are somehow suppressing their work, (Elon Musk, apparently, is some kind of closet liberal, masquerading as a right-wing arsehole).  I have to say, my reaction to their gripes, as it is to just about everyone who thinks they can make a living out of posting stuff on-line, is to shout 'Just get a fucking proper job' at my screen.  If I had a pound for every time I've seen some 'content creator' put out a plea for their followers to help them out financially because they don't actually have a job, instead relying upon ad revenue, Patreon or just straightforward donations, then I'd be making a mint out of the web.

But to get back to my main point - these self-styled 'experts' are, of course, experts in nothing but self publicity and spinning bullshit.  Because they are, of course, the main purveyors of the idiotic conspiracy fantasies that so blight modern discourse.  (Yeah, you knew it from the outset - this really about my favourite hobby horse - the evils of conspiracy bollocks).  As they lack any real knowledge of any of the subjects they like to claim expertise on, they just recycle the same old ignorant and ill-informed bullshit in pursuit of their own particular agendas.  Who needs facts when you can spout opinions and hearsay instead, trying to give it authority and gravitas by spuriously claiming to be an 'expert'?  So yeah, I've had enough of 'experts'.  Mot specifically I've had enough of the inexpert type of experts who just spout partisan bollocks, hiding behind their misinterpretations of 'free speech' in order to justify their spreading of lies.  Let's get back to the days when to be an expert, you actually had to know something about your given field.