Show your support by disabling ad-block (How), Buy AD-FREE ACCESS here, for only $19 / yr. Disabling adblock for a specific site just takes a couple of clicks. "DEVIN STEWART: You should. I teach and I write for a living. Here we are again, trying to make our way around nuclear terms and concepts as war rages in the middle of Europe. Naval War College and an adjunct at the Harvard Extension School. If that happens, America will become a different country, and we will all enter the first iteration of an American dictatorship. In doing so, the program also cultivates the next generation of moral leaders across the Pacific. The president is talking about meeting with Putin very soon. What if I didn't have experts? He actually said, "Would it be so bad if I didn't have experts?" Tom drawing attention to the travel bans cruelty is definitely a silver lining. A.D. Green bubble. We are all in this miserable, frustrating boat. Across the world today, there is active hostility towards experts, says Tom Nichols of the U.S. The pandemic caused the biggest disruption in the history of American education. That's a keeper." We're just not. Tom standing in a podium. | About | Contact | Investors | Crowdfunding | RSS, Why this site is the very opposite of hateful - a Christian letter to my hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Obama Would Just Look Like a Fool: Why a Putin-Obama Summit Is a Bad Idea, Young Popular Russian Priest, Murdered by Islamic Fanatic: Reminiscences and Footage, The Most Breathtaking 'Lord Have Mercy' You Have Ever Heard, Beautiful, Unearthly Hymn Chanted by Russian Orthodox Choir in Empty Church, Russian Women Always Wear Headscarves to Church. The fight will be a rearguard action, and we will likely lose. And all kinds of things could go wrong, all kinds of things. The American public now has what it wanted. The touchstone for this that I use in the book is the old TV series Cheers, which was, for people who are too young to remember it, about a bunch of Boston barflies, and one of them is a mailman who is a know-it-all. But I think that something has changed in that, and I think that now people are not just suspicious of experts or feel the need to test them, they're actively hostile to experts, and they feel that they know as much or more than experts, which is really kind of an astounding claim.DEVIN STEWART: How did that new hostility come into place? I happen to know the person who asked this question. For example, in Vietnam, the "best and the brightest" were the people who were generically smart but not experts. 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". The War in Ukraine Is the End of a World. https://t.co/lu8BmsoYGH. 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. Tom Nichols's mother's name is unknown at this time and his father's name is under review. He picked her question about immigration but again, like I said I can see how appearing on conspiracist Joy Reid's show has rubbed off on you. It was me. Like many famous people and celebrities, Tom Nichols keeps his personal life private. They head off expressions of this kind of social disapproval by being aggressive and performative, daring anyone to criticize them for feeling the need to be armed while getting milk and eggs at the supermarket. He writes about international security, nuclear weapons, Russia, and the challenges to democracy in the United States and around the worldalong with occasional contrarian views on popular culture. I also know Ellen, and you're making an ass of yourself. Many of us instead held firm and made the case for democracy and the rule of law from the right flank against our own tribe. Therefore, you're wrong about everything. [1][2], 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. Ukraine needs any weapon its troops can learn to use, including tanks, to hold the line on the international order and the worlds safety. 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. Its been more than a day, and he just keeps going. @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 not confidently predicting victory. "[6], Joshua Huminski of the Diplomatic Courier described the book as "timely", citing Donald Trump's statements on climate change and Pew Research surveys regarding genetically modified organisms. Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 13, 2022 If you really want to piss off Musk, stay here and ignore him and the trolls. Right. Tom Nichols justifying a military junta because the founders just didn't know as much as he does is brand perfection. His work deals with issues involving Russia, nuclear weapons, and national security affairs. Would you attribute this scorn to the rise of populism worldwide? I am a professor. 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. I hope that this is purely alarmism on my part. https://t.co/6pal9O1VvQ, Hi, @ellencarmichael. TOM NICHOLS: That's where this problem of narcissism comes in, because metacognition is also a very humbling thing. . Stop using me to make a point about Fox. 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. The goal, of course, is to lodge that association in the viewer's head and *get* ordinary people thinking this. Americas not at war was a common refrain among the troops. This, apparently, somehow makes it logical to link illegal immigration with travel bans during a pandemic and not at all just the usual red-meat, nativist bullshit from Fox. 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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. Make some popcorn and get comfortable as he burns down billions of . Who are the experts who are laying out the possible snares and traps here to warn the president about "This is what it's like to talk to the Russians; these are the things"? What is wrong with you???? TOM NICHOLS: Let me give a shout-out to my publisher and say they were wonderful through the writing of this book. But it wasnt supposed to be a guide to life in modern America. Period. Thats not the kind of thing we want to be promoting, they said. Now that it looks like Trump is headed for defeat, some Republicans feel safe to criticize him again. After the worst attack on U.S. soil, Americans had no real interest in adult conversation about the reality of anti-terrorist operations in so harsh an environment as Afghanistan (which might have entailed a presence there long beyond 20 years), nor did they want to think about whether draining the swamp and modernizing and developing Afghanistan (which would mean a lot more than a few elections) was worth the cost and effort. Looking at what we have in office and the whole spectrum, what could possibly go wrong?TOM NICHOLS: Let's just stipulate that World War III is the worst thing that can go wrong. Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault From Within on Modern Democracy. I think it predates the Internet, and I think it has to do with the growth of a strong streak of narcissism in American society. "Well done, media watchdog! Joseph Gleason Immediately After Ecumenism Came Homosexuality by Archpriest Theodore Zisis "DEVIN STEWART: But isn't it more fun to be less self-aware?TOM NICHOLS: It's certainly less painful to be less self-aware. You need to let go, Tom. This comment reveals the depths of the Republican Partys moral collapse. Can you explain that phenomenon? That's a political discussion that people have. While some lost money, all lost friends. Its been a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the war continues. Who needs experts? Thats an awfully elitist attitude, Tom. Whether it is Nikki Haley or Tom Cotton running for president or Foxs prime-time lineup bolstering Trumps underlings, for as long as I have a public platform, I will contend that these are people who betrayed the principles of our system of government for their own gain and that my fellow citizens should refuse to give them votes or ratings. The newcomer was shamed into locking the gun up for the rest of the event. Tom Nichols dissects the dangerous antipathy to expertise. 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. And I think were in a real-time experiment to find out if that's true, and I'm worried about that. I wouldnt wish this situation on my worst enemy. https://t.co/EhJiai597Z pic.twitter.com/rABCmph5gY, Say, @ellencarmichael, you're a professional political consultant. Breitbart claimed I was breaking that law. I've gotten them from lawyers and a fair number from people in the teaching profession, so it's been very encouraging. But before we move on, before we head back to the mall, before we resume posting memes, and before we return to bickering with each other about whether we should have to mask up at Starbucks, let us remember that this day came about for one reason, and one reason only. At a minimum, I will join with other civil libertarians to limit the speed and depth with which the president will take us into authoritarianism. (I had been asked some years earlier to be a contributor when the publication launched. [4] Andrew Joseph Pegoda disagreed on the last point, writing that The Death of Expertise "does what good books do and provides some possible solutions". It's understandable that people overestimatefirst of all, let me just say that all human beings, whether they have a good grip of metacognition or not, overestimate their abilities. Or try another recommendation from our reading list of books that reveal our anxieties about a warming planet. 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. I tweeted Bret publicly and others in our situation sent tweets. But I also think lay people have to let go of the kind of poisonous talk radio tropes about how experts are the enemy and mean to do you harm and are just trying to line their pockets, and to recognize that we all do live in the same community and in the same society and that we really can take expertise and common sense and wed them together to return to something like the country we used to be, I hope.DEVIN STEWART: So "be nice to one another" is ancient wisdom.TOM NICHOLS: Know thyself.DEVIN STEWART: Know thyself and be nice.TOM NICHOLS: And the Golden Rule, yes. Continuing to write about Trump could mean serious financial hardship. 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. 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. After living with this subject and writing about it for three or four years now, I almost don't want to work on it anymore because it's too depressing. The election of Petr Pavel is important to Czechsand to Americans. It is an expansion of a 2014 article published in The Federalist. I want to think more about how to make this better rather than to keep plumbing the depths to find out how bad it is. That's kind of weird. There are things I suppose I would fix. Baier did nothing wrong. Baier was understandably puzzled as to why Nichols was getting so bent out of shape: I asked a lot of questions Tom-that 1 was from a viewer who was concerned about migrants coming across the southern border while restrictions prevent their family from getting together.