So I think all of these things combined together have created this kind of unfounded and fragile arrogance in people where they claim to know as much as experts, but deep down know they're probably wrong about that.DEVIN STEWART: That first article, was that the Foreign Affairs one, if people want to go back and look for it?TOM NICHOLS: The very first piece was actually in a magazine called The Federalist online. McMaster's Carnegie Council talk in 2014, a few years before he became national security advisor in 2017.] 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. People have actually raised this with me, saying: "Gee, in Asia is this a problem? 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 interestingly enough, I think, again, it's that problem of metacognition. Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 30, 2021. I was a founding member of the band of Republican defectors known as the Never Trumpers, and one way or another, the times I have lived inthe movement to protect American democracy from Donald Trump and to stop his reelectionwill come to an end in November. Will knows the person (me) because he is a personal friend. This question from a Republican consultant is completely valid, thats why I lied about who I got it from., Bob Sampson (@bobsalpha1) August 2, 2021, All you need to understand that freak-out from the defenders of that Fox segment a few days ago is to replace "GOP consultant" with "Democratic consultant" and change "Fox" to "MSNBC," and then ask what those same people would have said about it.They went nuts because they know. He sits at the end of the bar, and he begins every sentence with, "Well, it's a known fact" or "Studies have shown, Diane," and he starts lecturing on something completely stupid that he has no idea what he's talking about. Someone of his age and self-declared credentials spends all day and night being a jerk online. That's a no-no. He blames trends in higher education (such as . DEVIN STEWART: It is a global phenomenon. I closed my blog as a way of showing everybody that you don't have to express every thought that goes through your head. The emergence of a strong center in France; all of this fear of an ignorant right-wing, anti-elitist, anti-expert takeover in France turned out to be in the exact opposite direction. But the respect for the idea of expertise, of these exclusive, highly specialized areas of knowledge where people should defer to that body of knowledge and to the people who have that body of knowledge, that's what is really falling under attack in modern society today.DEVIN STEWART: How did you first come to observe this phenomenon?TOM NICHOLS: I think every young professional when you first make that transition, whether you're a doctor, a diplomat, a teacher, or whatever your profession is, you'll always encounter somebody who wants to argue with you about it, who goes: "Oh, you're a lawyer, huh? The second best result is Tom Nichols age 60s in Mount Sterling, KY. Well, let me tell you about lawyers." I promise Ill stop talking about the EU travel ban when they reverse it. Its been a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the war continues. What's different now?TOM NICHOLS: As I said, when I first started out, I was a Russia guy, Soviet Union. He found Nichols' explanations of the reasons for the current situation as "successful on some accounts and less so on others", but his review was generally positive ("Nichols clearly identifies multiple sources of the erosion of the belief in experts and their prominence in today's society"). I think most people don't want to do that second part. The president is talking about meeting with Putin very soon. It is an expansion of a 2014 article published in The Federalist. 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. There are always going to be experts; there are always going to be people who know how to do very specialized tasks. I've gotten them from lawyers and a fair number from people in the teaching profession, so it's been very encouraging. How Long Would the US Navy Survive in a Shooting War? 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. Her profession has nothing to do with it. 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. I have not yet thought about a follow up or another edition. If Trumps minions were determined to curtail my constitutional rights, I was more determined to exercise them. Dont take my word for it that things have changed. They would today be trying to learn something from nearly 2,500 dead service members and many more wounded. https://t.co/urh74K6eyK. These late conversions to opposing Trump mean nothing, at least to me. 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! All Rights By Tom Nichols. DEVIN STEWART: Maybe they didn't have the word "metacognition," but they were onto TOM NICHOLS: It didn't rhyme with anything. 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. And that pertains to anything, whether it's writing or acting or singing or any human endeavor.DEVIN STEWART: But the metacognition is also the awareness that you don't have the expertise.TOM NICHOLS: That's right.DEVIN STEWART: So as long as you're self-aware enough to know that there is something lacking in your skill set or your knowledge base, that's the key. Nothing is perfect, and risks are never zero. 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. 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 past is the future: The song Big Iron was a hit in early 1960, but it became an internet meme thanks to Fallout New Vegas, the 2010 entry in one of the greatest science-fiction-video-game franchises of all time, the Fallout series. @BretBaier described you as "a viewer. I think of this passage often, not only because I spent the first part of my career fighting (in my own small and mostly insignificant way) the Cold War, but also because I have spent the most recent part of my career fighting the possible rise of authoritarianism in my own country. You've witnessed this around the world, as well, in Asia and Europe, this phenomenon of scorn toward the elite and toward expertise. It's a great book, and it has a funny cover too.TOM NICHOLS: I should tell you that the cover has all of these fake Twitter quotes on it. What if I didn't have experts? He actually said, "Would it be so bad if I didn't have experts?" 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. The future of the world order is at stake. 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". When my friendsincluding the few I have left among the conservativesask what the Never Trumpers will do now, I say with all honesty that I am not sure. Naval War College. Like many famous people and celebrities, Tom Nichols keeps his personal life private. Were at war. 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. He claims expertise in a lot of things, but his most recent . There were a lot of professionals who reached out to me to basically say "Thank you for writing this." What are they saying?TOM NICHOLS: They mostly are from professionals. TOM NICHOLS: That's where this problem of narcissism comes in, because metacognition is also a very humbling thing. One of the things that has always concerned me about the president is that he seems unbriefable. 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? The Russians continue to murder both Ukrainians and their own young men for Putins mad scheme. Courage exercised only when the coast is clear is not courage; it is opportunism. DEVIN STEWART: And the edges of knowledge.TOM NICHOLS: And the edges of knowledge. Let me just add, "And you should buy it anyway. My mother, for one. And if the Trump administration is saying, "Well, we're all a bunch of smart guys who made a million dollars in Goldman Sachs or real estate; how hard can running Syria policy be?" The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters is a 2017 nonfiction book by Tom Nichols. And what if Trump wins? Maybe it would have been worth it. "DEVIN STEWART: You talk about how this kind of plays out at dinner parties, where the least informed are the loudest. DEVIN STEWART: Wow. This isn't about travel policy, or you, or your child. Shutterstock / The Atlantic. The best way I can put it is that 30 years later I started having the experience of instead of people saying, "Look, I'm very concerned about this, and here's what I want to tell you" or "Here's what I want to ask you," or "Here's what I want to challenge you about," people would simply say, "Tom, let me explain Russia to you," which is not even a conversation; that's a conversation stopper. 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? Because that's some top strategering there. I became intimately familiar with the Hatch Act and its provisionsand I obeyed it far more scrupulously than anyone in the Trump White Housebut that did not stop the regular waves of emails and phone calls over the next four years, usually spurred by some Trump-supporting website or talk-show host, demanding that I be fired. Before we get to the global, let's talk about the local. I, along with others in the #LoveIsNotTourism movement, publicly tweeted him, you numbskull. Baier did nothing wrong. https://t.co/IOi3eb1bW3, Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 31, 2021. Foxes have a very broad knowledge; hedgehogs have a very deep but narrow knowledge. My question is, who are the Russia people? Americas at the mall.. 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. The World as We Knew It shows how Greek mythology can help us make sense of the climate crisis. So, regular people cant have the same concerns as a political consultant? Hi Tom! 6 Vacation Rentals for a Russian Trip to Remember. 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The problem was that, once the initial euphoria wore off, the public wasnt much interested in it. A.D. Green bubble. For the first time in my life, I felt like a dissident. I get a lot of notes from doctors who say, "Thank you for finally saying that as an endocrinologist I know more about medicine than my patients." Kabul has fallen. 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. Its late. Yes, but the point is to command the viewer's unthinking assent by implying that "many ordinary people are thinking this. https://t.co/fuiST5S7BB. The experts on things like Southeast Asia and insurgency, they were saying, "Look, this is a lot harder than it looks." I happen to know the person who asked this question. As it turned out, even before the Breitbart story dropped, my employer had already determined that I had not violated any laws or regulations. Katherine Hu contributed to this newsletter. Heres how to stop dating people who are wrong for you. I am a successful author, but none of my books are about Trump, and to this day, I dont even have an agent. I do political/policy PR on totally unrelated topics so Im therefore ineligible to petition my government on this one that impacts my family. Today, there is a neediness in the gun culture that speaks to deep insecurities among a certain kind of American citizen. 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But The New York Times review was somewhat fair to say that I don't really solve this as much as I kind of point at it and say we have to do something about it. "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. You need to let go, Tom. These five COVID numbers dont make sense anymore. 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. A win in the Supreme Court for the American right to threaten one another in public. 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. 20th-century Greek American writers (2 P) Pages in category "American writers of Greek descent" . Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 5, 2021 Well, yes actually, DeSantis was the victim of a lie broadcast to millions of people and amplified by Nichols himself. Tom Nichols, who used to consider himself a conservative, has fully embraced his inner snob. Well, to be fair, Tom Nichols literally has nothing better to do with his time. As they did with all of us in the Never Trump camp, the presidents most fanatical supporters accused me of outright treason. Besides, the fight among the conservatives was mostly brewing in Washington, D.C., and I was a middle-aged professor living on the quiet shores of Rhode Island. I dont have the energy or expertise to debate whether the Supreme Court should have taken on the case of a New York State law that limited the ability to carry weapons around in public. It was a good question. 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. Tom Nichols 's email & phone Current Position: Contributing Writer at The Atlantic Location: Middletown, Rhode Island Experience: 34 years How to contact Tom Nichols Get email address: txxxn@theatlantic.com Phone number: +1-205-xxx-xx47 Last updated: 2022-04-16 Social media: Sign Up to Get Free Contacts Use a Browser Extension Opt-Out 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. In the beginning, there was the Bomb. "DEVIN STEWART: You should. Its been more than a day, and he just keeps going. Bret Baier publicly solicited questions. There are things I suppose I would fix. 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. To change your comments display name, click here. Naval War College, and this is a very dangerous trend. What did strike me is that I was taken by surprise at how global the reaction was. Some had even signed letters during the election saying that theyd never work for Trump, but when he won, they groveled and asked for just one more glimpse of the throne. Here we are again, trying to make our way around nuclear terms and concepts as war rages in the middle of Europe. Donald Trump didn't create this, but he certainly weaponized it politically, just as Brexiteers did in the UK. 803 were here. They demanded my arrest. I believe that if all of us had caved, Trump would now be much closer to victory, not just at the polls, but over the Constitution itself. The other is that at the end I didnt reallywe were talking earlier about The New York Times and how all their reviews always have a little of a backhand in them. DEVIN STEWART: Cliff Clavin.TOM NICHOLS: Everybody knows that guy. At this point, Carmichael's friend @wupton white-knights his way over to say: No, no, she's really raising this question, and it's a good thing to ask, because it's legit (even though she just said it wasn't in her original question)./4https://t.co/68gP9WbUlT, As this devolves into people all frantically trying to extricate themselves from a bad planted question while "Yakety Sax" plays, Will remembers when I smoked cigars with him in the days before The Federalist spoke up for Roy Moore./5https://t.co/wDWeLR2ija. 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. U.S. A shroud is settling over the dreams many of us had at the end of the 20th century. I think that's natural, and as I've said many times, I actually think that's a positive part of our culture. I did nothing wrong. Whether McCarthy wins or loses is irrelevant. Or alternately, that crushing moment of saying, "Wow, I can't believe I'm this bad of a writer." Tom drawing attention to the travel bans cruelty is definitely a silver lining. "Well done, media watchdog! The American public now has what it wanted. You can be angry with the Court for furthering and enabling this weirdness, but its not the Courts fault. People owned them; they didnt talk about them. Use your critical thinking skills. I think it's okay to take stuff from Twitter. Bidens policy, of course, is not that different from Trumps, despite all the partisan howling about it from Republicans. I teach and I write for a living. This was a war that was immensely popular at the outset and mostly conducted in full view of the American public. As is Tom drawing attention to his awfulness its important that as many people as possible realize what kind of person he is.