It will surprise nobody when I say that America faces a crisis of trust.

What may surprise you is that the crisis is that we–and by this, I mean the vast swath of “normal” people in America–still trust our institutions far too much.

There is still too much trust, not a deficit of it.

This may not apply to you, but I must admit that I can still be surprised at how evil and dishonest many people in charge of our government and our vital institutions truly are.

They may not be evil in the sense of a Bond villain–although we certainly have our share of those in Western society. Klaus Schwab comes to mind, just dripping with obvious contempt for the little people who make the world work and make his life so comfortable. There are more than a few world leaders who fit that mold–who will just come out and say that there should be fewer people, that they should be poorer, and that the whims of the transnational elite should dictate their lives.

But for the most part, the evil people are simply venal. They are willing to sacrifice the well-being of others to further their power, wealth, or comfort. Randi Weingarten comes to mind, as does nearly every journalist and academic thriving in today’s corrupt environment. They are so self-centered that they are indifferent to or even unaware of the damage they do to others.

They are the West’s Nomenklatura–the elite in the old Soviet Union who willingly propped up a thoroughly corrupt and evil system of government because it benefited them, and crossing the powers that be above them could be uncomfortable or even fatal. It’s best to go along to get along.

Then there are the evil people like Fauci, who spent the past few years destroying the country to cover up his massive mistake in funding the development of COVID and then took the disaster as an opportunity to perform a multi-year experiment on the public. COVID worked out great for him, so the deaths of millions and the social destruction was worth it. He came out looking like a hero, not the villain he actually is.

Nothing I have said here surprises you, right? You already distrust these people. They may not be lying every time they open their mouths, but it is best to assume so because they are vile liars when they benefit from being so. They are sociopaths.

The problem is that a large number of Americans have yet to wake up to just how evil our elite class has become. Hence, they keep giving journalists, academics, politicians, and bureaucrats the benefit of the doubt. They are like Charlie Brown, trusting Lucy with the football, and no matter how much we shout our warnings that Americans will fall flat on their backs once again, they keep making the mistake of trusting.

They haven’t reconciled themselves to the fact that the people they have trusted for decades are awful people. Our president is a senile creepy pedophile with a corrupt family who gropes women before our very eyes, but that reality is too awful to acknowledge. Jeffrey Epstein is too awful to contemplate, so they don’t. Alphabet ideology is obviously evil, but people comfort themselves with the idea that sterilizing and mutilating children is “compassionate.”

The alternative to trusting our elite is to realize just how degenerate the world has become.

In a way, I understand. It is jarring and then dispiriting to conclude that the people in whom you have placed your faith are, in fact, evil or at least complicit with evil. When I explain to a liberal friend why I believe we are being lied to, his response is simple and easy to understand: “If that is true, how can you live like that? It’s so depressing!”

Yes, but it is also liberating. And infuriating. And frustrating. And ultimately, it is living in the truth. Not that I believe I know THE Truth, but I at least search for it sincerely, knowing that I can’t just take the word of chronic liars who jerk me around at their whim.

I know good people who genuinely believed that vaccine skeptics belonged in jail or concentration camps and that their children should be taken away from them. As horrifying as that is–and it is truly horrifying–they believed this because they trusted the people they should have been able to trust. The reality is that we have to trust others in order to just get by. The trick is figuring out who to trust and when to do so.

We outsource our thinking all the time and with good reason. I have never verified that Great Britain exists, but I am confident that it does. France too. I purchase products trusting that they are wholesome and useful–although I am often disappointed. I exchange money for goods online with the full expectation that I will get the product, despite not even having spoken to a human being.

Trust makes the world work.

There are billions of assumptions I make every day based on common sense, and common sense is usually based on some level of trust in the things others tell us. Our experiences are limited, so we trust others to share their knowledge. A common view of the world emerges.

Common sense used to tell us that the doctor bringing out the vaccine had our best interests in mind. And generally, it was true. Now? Who can I trust?

Trust is a vital component of life, but you have to know who and what to trust and also when to be skeptical. The past few years have given many of us more than adequate reason to distrust our political, economic, cultural, and academic elites–but for many people, that lesson is still sinking in, or, in many cases, the consequences of realizing that evil liars rule us is too awful to contemplate.

It is easier to trust the people in charge–or at least trust that their intentions are good and that when bad things happen, it is due to a well-meaning mistake.

For a long time, I believed in the “they meant well” claim, but it is glaringly obvious to me that this is false. Anthony Fauci lied; he didn’t make mistakes. He lied. Multiply that realization by a thousand, and you will get a sense of how corrupt our ruling class is.

Are there good people in the elite? Smart academics who are sincerely trying? Are there bureaucrats and FBI agents trying to do the right thing?

Surely there are. There are even some good journalists out there, even in the MSM.

But on the whole, the system is corrupt and broken, and our elites are irredeemable sociopaths. That is a devastating thing to realize, but it is also true.

So, like many, I believe there is a crisis of trust in our society. But it isn’t that too few of us trust our elites; too many still do.

Things are much worse than most people realize. Our leaders are more like Xi Jinping than George Washington, whatever Joe Biden claims. That a creep like Joe Biden can be compared to Washington by anybody is a cruel joke.

But still, too few people laugh at that cruel joke. Because they still trust the wrong people.