Belarus parliament passes bill, rejecting rights for LGBTQ+ community

By Javohir Aminov, Assistant News Editor

Thomas M. Nichols recently came to Canisius University to talk about how the death of expertise is undermining American democracy. In his book, “The Death of Expertise” reflects upon what exactly is killing expertise in modern day America. Nichols suggests that there are multiple causes to this, such as the media, talk radio shows and self-proclaimed experts stating that they “Googled it.”

The media has made cultures clash with each other, causing that divide among society and causing people to believe false information that sways the way they think. However, the main drive that made society this way is narcissism. People are likely to reject an expert's statement and rely on opinions found from the internet or even personal beliefs they think are true. Over the past years, experts are trusted less and less because of the fact that people believe that they hold bias within their facts, making them wrong and unfactual.

In March 2014, there was a poll conducted by the Washington Post that asked a sample of 2,066 Americans where Ukraine was located on a map. Results showed that only one in six Americans could accurately find Ukraine, which emphasized the fact that those people with the strongest opinions about the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, utterly failed at pinpointing it, with some even placing their marker in Antarctica.

This poll begs the question if Americans are able to participate in democracy without basic knowledge. The answer is no. A republic cannot survive on ignorance, as stated by Nichols during his seminar. His book draws on the fact that people come overly confident in their opinions after reading a few articles, watching videos or indulging in social media content that has a chance of spreading misinformation.

One question that was asked during the seminar was “What’s your perspective on the media’s role and what they can do to stop the death of democracy?” Nichols answered with, “The media is not ready for an authoritarian onslaught” and that we need more unity in the media in order to minimize the political polarity we already have in the real world that stems from news networks and social media platforms.

Another person asked, “How much are experts being blamed for the death of democracy?” Nichols responded that there are two ways: we are arrogant and difficult and experts have not owned up to their mistakes yet. People are impatient with “yes or no” answers and prefer more certainty than ambiguity, then state that “public expectation is out of wack.”

His main message is that experts aren’t perfect, but ignoring them won’t make it easier for people to solve problems and understand the facts that come with it.