Experts and populists

When the United States government was founded during the Enlightenment, it included the First Amendment to protect free speech. Free speech would enable a "marketplace of ideas" to flourish, rationalism would supplant superstition and conventional wisdom, and truth would win out. The new country, founded on truth, could grow to be a great nation.

Support for competing ideas and robust debate can be found in the philosophy of John Milton, and Thomas Jefferson argued that it is safe to tolerate "error of opinion [...] where reason is left free to combat it". [Source]

In the centuries that followed, newspapers, radio, television, and the internet have all held potential as the media for exchange of ideas, though in various ways they've failed to live up to their potential. Yellow journalism, Father Coughlin, the 24-hour news cycle, and Qanon have shown that "consumers" in the "marketplace of ideas" still have to practice caveat emptor.

As I read the news these days, and see stories about how the COVID delta variant continues to sicken and kill people (particularly the unvaccinated), I feel frustrated that the marketplace of ideas does not always function as intended.