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I had never thought of it. But with the decline of religion, it seems faith is now directed at authority, mostly of the political but also the 'scientific' kind. Great point, thank you.

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Yes, it's sad how common it is for people to be extremely critical of individuals or even whole institutions (e.g. Trump, Conservatives, cops, the prison system, the NRA, Google, Comcast), yet still have a strong unspoken belief that behind all that, the government and the law as a whole are Good Things made to care for them and their families.

Took me a long time to realize I was even thinking like that myself.

It's like the Gell-man amnesia effect for news, but with authority in general (it doesn't even have to be gov, it could be NGOs, news, religion, expert establishment, etc)

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