Originally Posted by
theprestige
Experts have to earn trust the same as everyone else. And at the end of the day, their opinions have to be scrutable to the lay audiences they are trying to address.
Opinions from experts in a poorly regulated, unsupervised profession probably shouldn't be trusted just because they're experts. You don't necessarily want the opinions of Blackwater veterans, on the topic of destroying the village versus saving the village.
Likewise, opinions from experts who break from their profession's regulations or standards probably also shouldn't be trusted just because they're experts. The whole point of regulating and standardizing a profession is to make it more trustworthy. When a professional presents their "expert" opinion, you know it's reliable because it's consistent with the framework of reliability established by their profession. This is the fundamental problem the Yale group faces: They want all the advantages that accrue to a profession that has established its trustworthiness, but also all the advantages of departing from their profession's framework of trustworthiness.
In the particular case of the experts who are the topic of this thread:
There is no evidence that they have contravened the clinical standards of their profession in a way that would bring their assessment of Donald Trump’s mental health into question. Their expert opinion on Donald Trump’s mental heath was arrived at using the standards of their profession. It is reliable. Their opinions are scrutable to the lay audience they are addressing.
They are not practicing in a poorly regulated or unsupervised profession.
There is no evidence that they want “advantages”. In what way does their published opinion provide them with advantages?
The argument is that they should not publicize their opinions of Trump’s mental health due to a regulation of an organization that they may or may not belong to. This has nothing to do with the validity of their argument.