My inclination to believe always shuts off when I hear a talking head begin with “Experts say . . .” or “All experts agree . . .” It’s like an anonymous source you have a moral obligation to believe because the people telling you that are on TV and therefore must know what they’re talking about. They assure you that these mysterious experts are more knowledgeable about the subject at hand and can be trusted, but they might as well be telling you to put your faith in a bunch of wizards. Aside from the fact that the media has been caught lying so much as to seem ubiquitous, it’s just not good enough to trust anyone’s word that a group defined with nothing more than a label is what they say it is. I am justified in my skepticism because whenever the identities and claims of these experts have been investigated, it turned out the talking heads were lying about them, too. They never mentioned the fact that there were plenty of experts who did not agree, or that they had strong scientific proofs to back up their arguments. If they did happen to mention the dissenters, it was only to label them as a misguided minority whom no one should take seriously. Some of the ones they said were experts turned out not to be experts at all but hacks chosen to be mouthpieces for whatever lie the media paymasters wanted people to believe.
I have the same incredulous reaction to statements like “Science says . . .” or “Trust the science.” Science is not some thing out there that makes pronouncements like a disembodied god. It is people who test theories about the nature of things with experiments that will tell them whether their theories are correct. At least that’s how honest people go about it. The ones in paid service to the liars don’t do that. Neither do the ones whose reputation and salary are more important to them than the truth. These are highly educated men and women who fudge data, truncate experiments, and make ridiculous assertions whenever the facts they uncover dispute a cherished theory or contradict what the ones paying them want them to say. It turns out they are humans after all with the same flaws, fears, and need for security as the less educated masses they look down upon, so know this: Theory that is presented as fact is NOT science. Neither is theory shot full of holes by facts that is patched with unprovable things to make it seem reasonable. Neither is an outright lie presented as truth.
I will not even mention how I feel when I hear someone in the government say that some new policy will benefit me, especially if it’s the Democrats who concocted it. I have learned to take whatever they say and expect the exact opposite. That was true until President Trump, who really did things that benefitted me, just like he promised. He gave me hope that things could actually change, but even though I still expect they will, I see the liars are still at it, clawing at the edge of a vast hole they dug for themselves. Corrupt Democrats withering from massive consumption of drugs and alcohol or simply from age, treacherous back-stabbing Rhinos trying to smile and appear genuine, blathering news media talking heads who used to be people, insufferable self-righteous Hollywood stars with a formaldehyde shine from a heartless addiction to adrenochrome, witless sports figures who wallow in Chinese bling while they insult patriotic Americans from their outrageous mansions, every big social media platform filled with ugly trolls and mindless parrots who think they’re clever, CEOs who think it’s patriotic to force people to inject something into their bodies, and crazy megalomaniacal business tycoons who want to block out the sun; they are all propping up their faux president as if he had been elected by actual votes from living people. It’s not going to work. Everyone knows what happened, even those who continue to deny it. The lie is just too big, with too much proof that it’s a lie, and I don’t expect it will be too long before the whole thing collapses.
Trying to make others believe a lie is always bad, and no liar will ever have my trust or my vote. No communist or socialist gussied-up in Democrat trappings can ever convince me that they are on my side. I will also not be persuaded by any broad statement coming from a talking head or believe something they constantly repeat to make it seem true. When I hear that experts agree, I have no choice but to immediately look for the experts who do not agree to hear what they say. Perhaps it’s a rebellious streak in me, but I don’t like being lied to, and I do not accept the notion that a lie can become the truth if a lot of people believe it. That’s every bit as bat-shit crazy as trying to block out the sun.
It's a call to authority logical fallacy. It's overused as much as the straw man fallacy. When your argument has no real basis in reality you have to master these in order to justify any claims or present a rebuttal.
Hot tip: when someone starts their argument by stating their credentials you can generally expect a logical analysis constructed in bullshit to follow. Strong statements stand alone just fine.