Trusting the Powerful

Send us Fan Mail Episode 28 - Trust Define Trust - Trust is a two-gate process. First, a belief that you know something about the decisions of the person being trusted. Second, that the decisions of the person being trusted will be useful for you. Trust imbalance. Two entities that trust each other but to differing degrees. This describes all pairs of entities that trust each other, in fact. Some entities are easier to trust than others. Imbalances in other properties (power, knowledge) directly affect trust imbalance. Trusting the powerful (the gov't, or the 1%). It is very easy for the powerful to trust the powerless. It is much harder for the powerless to trust the powerful. As soon as an entity is capable of things that you cannot defend against the *need* for trust increases but the *likelihood* of trust decreases. Is this a situation that can describe some of the conspiracy thinking we see today? Is the popularity of conspiracism due to a rise in mistrust of gov't and the powerful in general? Or is it that mistrust of the powerful merely due to the powerful demonstrating a history of poor decisions? Links https://inequality.org/facts/wealth-inequality/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/analysis-how-poverty-can-drive-down-intelligence