I agree with your first couple of paragraphs. Thatās why my initial reply referred to āreputable independent evaluators like GiveWellā.
Conspiracy theorists do, of course, have their own distinct (and degenerate) āwebs of trustā, which is why I also flagged that possibility. But mainstream academic opinion (not to mention the opinion of the community thatās most invested in getting these details right, i.e. effective altruists) regards GiveWell as highly reputable.
I didnāt get the sense from Johnās comment that he understands reasonable social trust of this sort. He offered a false dichotomy between āthorough and methodical researchā and āgut reactionsā, and suggested that ātrust comes fromā¦ [personally] evaluat[ing] the service through normal use and consumption.ā I think this is deeply misleading. (Note, for example, that ānormal use and consumptionā does not give you any indication of how much lead is in your turmeric, whether your medication risks birth defects if taken during pregnancy, etc etc. Social trust, esp. in reputable institutions, is absolutely ubiquitous in navigating the world.)
I agree with your first couple of paragraphs. Thatās why my initial reply referred to āreputable independent evaluators like GiveWellā.
Conspiracy theorists do, of course, have their own distinct (and degenerate) āwebs of trustā, which is why I also flagged that possibility. But mainstream academic opinion (not to mention the opinion of the community thatās most invested in getting these details right, i.e. effective altruists) regards GiveWell as highly reputable.
I didnāt get the sense from Johnās comment that he understands reasonable social trust of this sort. He offered a false dichotomy between āthorough and methodical researchā and āgut reactionsā, and suggested that ātrust comes fromā¦ [personally] evaluat[ing] the service through normal use and consumption.ā I think this is deeply misleading. (Note, for example, that ānormal use and consumptionā does not give you any indication of how much lead is in your turmeric, whether your medication risks birth defects if taken during pregnancy, etc etc. Social trust, esp. in reputable institutions, is absolutely ubiquitous in navigating the world.)