Trusting? I trust the scientific method, and part of that is criticism of the results. I pointed out a possible correlate not taking into acount in the paper.

90% of "science" these days is actually politics, pill pushing, clickbait, philantrophic PR, geopolitical soft power flexes, grant baiting or the result of industry money or lobbyism.

Not weird most people are tired of that shit.

The technological foundations are amazing, but were laid many decades ago for the most part and most "bad things" these days are the result of the highly advanced and interconnected but extremely brittle global industrial society we have built, and the inequalities that still exist for 90+ of earths population.

But those problems will not get addressed directly but instead used as excuses to implement various shock doctrines by the upper echelons to pull or push various policies to siphon even more money from the many to the few.

"Science" as known pop culturally is one of these political tools, and it's becoming apparent.

It's important to remember that science isn't a bunch of data or experts, it is a way of thinking. That said, many don't trust the scientific system anymore. It seems like a double edged sword. We (collectively) are finding a new set point in the spectrum between "doing our own research" (eg searching inter webs or podcasts for answers), and "blindly trusting the elite experts". On complex technical things, neither one of these extremes seems optimal. The approach I strive for is to try to always question, and to try to know what I don't know even after 'doing my own research'. it's hard and sometimes I have to defer. I think we all do. Who we defer to on a given topic is the crucial point.

Trust comes after skepticism, not before it.

it was always about money and control. Not science. Science is about debating ideas rather than censoring and flagging comments.