Why Do Some People Reject Experts? (The Dunning–Kruger Problem)

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:01]The other day, I said not all opinions are equal.

[00:00:06]And whoa, some of y'all got real emotional about that.

[00:00:11]Because apparently in 2026, saying maybe the cardiologist knows more than your Uncle Randy's Facebook meme is controversial.

[00:00:21]So today, we need to talk about something called the Dunning-Kruger effect. Yeah.

[00:00:28]And before anybody starts foaming at the mouth in my comment section, no, I'm not saying conservatives are stupid. Even if some folks would agree with it if I did say that.

[00:00:40]But what I am saying is something way more uncomfortable. Check this out.

[00:00:44]Certain, um, political movements reward simplicity, certainty, obedience to slogans, distrust of expertise, and black-and-white thinking.

[00:00:56]And that appeals to certain people.

[00:00:59]Because complex ideas overwhelm them.

[00:01:02]Nuance confuses them.

[00:01:04]So they pick the party that never asked them to think at all. Just believe, obey, and submit.

[00:01:11]And if that sentence triggered you, good. Stay with me, because this gets interesting.

[00:01:17]One of the weirdest things online is watching people scream that universities, researchers, scientists, historians, doctors, economists, constitutional scholars, and subject matter experts are all somehow part of one giant ideological conspiracy.

[00:01:35]Like, everyone became woke.

[00:01:38]Did they?

[00:01:40]Or did people who spent decades studying complicated systems arrive at conclusions based on evidence?

[00:01:47]Because here's something we know from the research.

[00:01:51]The more education people have, the more likely they are to lean progressive on many things.

[00:01:57]Not universally, of course. Not every time. So, save me the "I have a master's degree and vote conservative" comments.

[00:02:05]Congratulations, hon. Gold star for you.

[00:02:09]No, we're talking trends here, averages, patterns.

[00:02:13]And researchers learned that it comes down to something called cognitive complexity.

[00:02:19]Basically, can you sit with nuance? Can you tolerate ambiguity?

[00:02:25]Can you hold two seemingly opposite ideas in your head at the same time?

[00:02:30]For example, can you You can accept that immigration creates pressure in some places, while also benefiting economies.

[00:02:38]That policing matters, while while also acknowledging systemic bias.

[00:02:43]Or criticize capitalism while still participating in the markets.

[00:02:48]That you can love your country while criticizing its failures and without feeling the need to waste billions of taxpayer dollars and years trying to separate from it.

[00:02:59]Complex societies require complex thinking. And people that are repeatedly exposed to debate, competing evidence, peer review, uncertainty, and revision, people who regularly participate in that become more comfortable with complexity.

[00:03:16]Not because they got brainwashed, because they practiced thinking.

[00:03:21]Foreign concept for some of y'all, I get it.

[00:03:24]Now enter Dunning-Kruger.

[00:03:26]This one's spicy, because there's actually a name for the phenomenon where people know just enough to feel wildly confident, while not knowing enough to recognize the limits of what they know.

[00:03:39]Which explains why somebody watches three TikToks, two rage podcasts, a guy yelling from inside a pickup truck, and suddenly thinks, "Actually, I know more than all the climate scientists, constitutional scholars, economists, doctors, historians, epidemiologists, and researchers combined with my GED and a social media account.

[00:04:02]Aha, my brother in Christ, we need to have a talk.

[00:04:06]And before anybody starts hyperventilating in my comment section screaming, "Experts are wrong sometimes."

[00:04:13]Yeah, they sure are. Nobody said experts are perfect.

[00:04:17]It was only a few hundred years ago that scientists thought the sun revolved around the Earth.

[00:04:23]But when new evidence presents itself, the smart folks pivot their beliefs in light of it.

[00:04:30]What they don't do is double down and insist the experts are wrong.

[00:04:36]Evidence, not a podcast and vibes, not conspiracy.

[00:04:42]So yeah, healthy skepticism is good.

[00:04:44]Questioning evidence, too.

[00:04:46]Debates from a position of expertise, perfect.

[00:04:50]But there's a difference between healthy skepticism and proudly declaring, "I reject expertise because it hurts my feelings."

[00:04:58]Because eventually you have to ask, when your politics teach you that professors are lying, scientists are corrupt, journalists are fake, economists are idiots, historians are indoctrinated, and experts are all conspiring against common sense, at what point is the problem not expertise, but a refusal to engage with complexity?

[00:05:24]And that is why facts tend to bounce off certain people like so many dodgeballs on the schoolyard.

[00:05:30]Because you're not debating someone who simply sees the world differently. This isn't pineapple on pizza or whether [snorts] it's acceptable to wear white after Labor Day.

[00:05:41]You're debating somebody who rejects complexity because certainty feels safer.

[00:05:47]Simple slogans feel safer. Black and white thinking feels safer.

[00:05:52]Good guys versus bad guys, us versus them. Everything is simple.

[00:05:57]Except the world isn't simple, and adulthood is in learning that.

[00:06:02]Not all opinions are equal.

[00:06:04]Not because some people matter more, but because expertise matters.

[00:06:09]If I have a runny nose and cough due to cold, sure, I'm going to Google some home remedies.

[00:06:15]But if I need heart surgery, I want the cardiologist to handle that, not Uncle Randy with a podcast and a GED.

[00:06:22]If a plane engine fails, most folks want an aerospace engineer to take a look at that, right? Not some dude in gas station sunglasses yelling, "Common sense!"

[00:06:33]And if we're talking economics, constitutional law, climate change, indigenous history, medicine, or public policy, yeah, I'm going to listen to the people who spent 30 years studying it and possess advanced degrees.

[00:06:47]Funny how seemingly overnight that idea suddenly became controversial, isn't it?

[00:06:53]It shouldn't be controversial. It's called adulthood. It's what smart folks do.

[00:06:59]Hey, in my next video I'm going to be I'm going to talk about something guaranteed to get some folks all up in their feels, immigration.

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[00:07:29]And in the meantime, peace out. This is going to be a ride.