“Britain has had enough of experts,” said Michael Gove in 2016. As a Brexiter, he was aware that his team were getting trounced on both generalities and details when it came to the EU. None of them knew what they were talking about and this was a way to neutralise knowledge and competence in the campaign.
Unfortunately for everybody, Brexit won and this clutch of self-proclaimed anti-experts set about implementing a prize they never expected to win. “Britain has had enough of exports” became reality as UK trade suddenly permanently dropped as a result of these useless fools.
This brings me on to RFK, oh good. “Trusting the experts is not a feature of either science or democracy,” was the outpouring from what is left of his brain. It echoes Gove’s comment, but takes the ignorance and stupidity to new levels. I guess everything is bigger in the land of opportunity.
It strikes me that this goes beyond the Dunning-Kruger effect, the well-known result describing the fact that incompetent people tend to overestimate their own competence at a given task. It’s not merely that RFK overestimates his own competence, he also underestimates the competence of everybody else.
I don’t know if this is a real effect or something that can be tested. However, in the interests of science, democracy as well, I think he should urgently undergo some psychological evaluation. Preferably in a padded cell with a big lock on the door.