Straw man Tom, and you know it.
Where did I say we need to “blindly follow along and not question our authorities”? There are many ways to question and hold to account public officials, but if i was to do this personally, I cannot ever trust anything. EVER.
However i do trust (mostly) advice from my doctor, who works in a professional capacity in an organisation created by politicians. If no one trusted a doctor then more people would die. Are you advocating disbelieving all doctors Tom?
You have been known to be wrong on numerous occasions, therefore your facts and data cannot be trusted. Therefore you have no standing in any of your comments, so why should I believe what you say about the politicians? That argument gets very circular.
You made the point that Nasa was not to be trusted because it was created by politicians who lied.
Your argument seems to be exactly that we should trust our authorities. Yet you say that is not your argument?
You give the doctor example. But, you know what? You should not unquestionably trust you doctor on all matters either. You should research the matter for better alternatives. Consult a naturopathic doctor for alternatives to having to take harmful drugs. Traditional western doctors are not the be-all end-all of health. Some traditional western doctors will send you to get radiation-laden CT scans because they are cheaper than the safer MRI scans. Others will fill you with pain drugs rather than curing the issue. Still others will poison you with a variety of nasty drugs in attempt to kill the disease. There are natural alternatives for many conditions. Drugs are not always necessary.
Authority is not correct because it is the status quo. We should not automatically blindly believe or trust in anything. Why would you encourage such a thing? You should know why you believe in something, not blindly believe it out of ignorance! Anyone who is content to just "trust in authority" without care or knowledge of details or truth is a sad fool. This really reflects on the heart of these discussions.
Wrong again Tom, i never said we need to trust our government without fail. Please feel free to quote me where i said that?
I was pointing out the flaw in Your argument that says because politicians were not open with all aspects of a conflict, they were lying, and therefore by creating an Agency, then whatever that agency subsequently reports is not to be believed either.
That might be your personal view, but because i do not agree with that view, does not mean by default that i then believe something you make up to be opposite to your statement.
That is putting words into my mouth, and saying I have beliefs, upon which you cannot possibly be certain.
I do trust some authorities, however my default is not automatically to distrust them. Mr Doctor i trust. I cannot help it if you dont trust your doctor, but then mine in the UK is not necessarily prescribing treatments that they make a profit from, or get kickbacks for doing so. Maybe it is different in your country.
“Natural” healers are unregulated in the UK (well some are) and as such can offer to sell snake juice and JuJu therapies, for which there is no real EVIDENCE of cures. I would offer that a patient that gets cured by some of these alternative therapies would have gotten better without it, but i cannot make a blanket statement to that effect, so dont do so.
When you fly (however if i had the same trust issues you appear to have I would NEVER fly) do you interrogate the pilot? If, like some, they learned to fly in the Air Force, do you ask the airline to change the pilot? Or disembark? They would have been trained by the military, so therefore cannot in any way be trusted as they were trained by the government.
There are degrees of trust, from blind faith to downright paranoia. I am in between, on the trusting side above the middle. I would hate to be so scared that i cannot rely upon anyone who has ever had any training or appointment made by the state.