"There’s an ominous recurring theme here: The very technologies we use to determine what’s trustworthy are the ones most under attack."

"The scarcest commodity in the world is trust. Nothing else comes close....
    "[But e]verybody is trying to kill it—criminals, technocrats, politicians, you name it. Not long ago, Disney was the only company selling a Fantasyland, but now that’s the ambition of every tech empire.
    "The trust crisis could hardly be more intense.
    "But it’s hidden from view because there’s so much information out there....
    "It has reached crisis proportions, and is getting worse. Compared to the trust deficit, all other shortages—eggs, toilet paper, vinyl albums—look modest in contrast....
    "Years ago, technology made things more trustworthy. You could believe something because it was validated by photos, videos, recordings, databases and other trusted sources of information.
    "Seeing was believing—but not anymore. Until very recently, if you doubted something, you could look it up in an encyclopedia or other book. But even these get changed retroactively nowadays....
    "There’s an ominous recurring theme here: The very technologies we use to determine what’s trustworthy are the ones most under attack.
    "Tell me what source you trust, and I’ll tell you why you’re a fool. As B.B. King once said: 'Nobody loves me but my mother—and she could be jivin' too.' ...
    "How hard is it to speak forthrightly and frankly? You would think that’s an easy thing to achieve. And maybe it was in the past, but not in the current moment."

~ Ted Gioia, from his post 'The Scarcest Thing in the World'