[mikkergp]

hm.. What information would you use without a web of trust to validate information online? I think before 2015 we just said never trust anything online and everyone you're talking to is probably a 40 year old man trying to scam you. What is "thinking for yourself" in this case, using your confirmation bias to find the information online that validates your priors?

[infamouscow]

What information do fact checkers, journalists, and other so-called authorities use to validate information? Why do you believe they are the arbiters of truth?

How would your rationale fair during the Copernican Revolution? In 1615, just a few hundred years ago, the arbiters of truth concluded that heliocentrism was foolish, absurd, and heretical since it contradicted the prevailing thought of the time.

If you really spend the time to think through the question, I think you'll conclude there is no reason for these fools to be gate keeping, especially when they consistently get most things wrong most of the time.

[mikkergp]

Ironically, before Twitter validated people, people relied _more_ on "these fools" because no one trusted anything outside of university and media websites

And in the copernican revolution I probably wouldn’t have believed in heliocentrism and lost almost nothing in life, but it wasn’t casual observers who changed that world either, it was people who dedicated their life to it, akin to the “ checkers, journalists, and other so-called authorities” you mention.