No, really.
On a few narrow subjects I know more than virtually anyone else on the planet.
But that’s not why I’m an expert. I’m an “expert” because many years ago I talked about some stuff and I was lucky that the stuff I talked about went viral. For me, my “expertise” is a bit showbiz. I have a public persona that is assertive, mostly copped from the delivery of radio preachers. There are a lot of other people just as well versed in my field of expertise who are not nearly as willing to write books and lecture. So they aren’t “experts” and I am.
Which finally brings me to my point, which is why Trump hires FOX people to be his advisers. People think I’m an expert because I talk like one and they don’t know the subject well enough to dispute it with me. Everybody on the planet knows more than Trump does about every subject, and the FOX people aren’t even in the top half of that.
But they talk like experts and Trump assumes they are. So he hires them to advise him.
This seems like the end result of something that started with the first show biz president, Ronald Reagan. Wild ideas are better for show biz, but not for policy. It turns out there is a major difference between having opinions that have no consequences, and working as a bona fide expert directing our country’s actions.
What might that difference be?
Buckle up.