The Weaponization of Expertise: How Elites Fuel Populism

By Jacob Hale Russell and Dennis Patterson

The problem with expertise--and the dark side of the equation "knowledge = power."

Experts are not infallible. Treating them as such has done us all a grave disservice and, as The Weaponization of Expertise makes painfully clear, given rise to the very populism that all-knowing experts and their elite coterie decry. Jacob Hale Russell and Dennis Patterson use the devastating example of the COVID-19 pandemic to illustrate their case, revealing how the hubris of all-too-human experts undermined--perhaps irreparably--public faith in elite policymaking. Paradoxically, by turning science into dogmatism, the overweening elite response has also proved deeply corrosive to expertise itself--in effect, doing exactly what elite policymakers accuse their critics of doing.

A much-needed corrective to a dangerous blind faith in expertise, The Weaponization of Expertise identifies a cluster of pathologies that have enveloped many institutions meant to help referee expert knowledge, in particular a disavowal of the doubt, uncertainty, and counterarguments that are crucial to the accumulation of knowledge. At a time when trust in expertise and faith in institutions are most needed and most lacking, this work issues a stark reminder that a crisis of misinformation may well begin at the top.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262049597
• ISBN13: 9780262049597
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.2" x 9.1"