Are you experiencing “expert fatigue”?
I sure am.
This week, the NIH and HHS reaffirmed what many have been trying to sound the alarm on, and what doctors and the media have consistently labeled a conspiracy theory.
Tylenol use during pregnancy may be linked to autism.
For decades, trusted experts told us that Tylenol was the safest choice both during pregnancy, and for our infants and toddlers.
Doctors and public health officials all said it was fine.
Take it.
Trust us.
Even when the actual science has long said that there was reason for caution and concern.
Now, millions of parents are left feeling like they’ve taken a sucker-punch to the gut.
Meanwhile, the “experts” move on with their careers and their prestige intact, and with no thought to the families who have to live with the consequences of their bad advice.
Tylenol just throws up their hands and says, “Hey! It wasn’t us! We’ve been saying all along that it wasn’t for babies or pregnant moms!”
And like always, the blame gets directed back to the people who “trusted the science” and did what the “experts” told them to.
People like you and me.
But this isn’t just about Tylenol.
We’ve seen the same playbook again and again.
Masking. Social distancing. “Two weeks to flatten the curve.” Business closures. Six-foot rules. Lockdowns. The vaccine that was supposed to prevent transmission. Remember all that? The “experts” demanded we change our lives—even turn on our neighbors!—and when it turned out that they were wrong about everything there was no apology, no accountability, and no consequence (for them).
Just new orders, and an expectation that we continue to trust them.
Remind me again what it’s called when you do the same thing again and again but expect different results?
Of course it isn’t just so-called public health.
For generations we’ve been told by experts that the best thing for our kids is to hand them over to strangers for the first 12–16 years of their lives. Only “trained professionals” can educate them, they say. Parents are amateurs and must let the experts do it.
But look around!
Test scores have plummeted, kids are anxious and disconnected, and families are struggling to hold it together. In fact, many just aren’t making it.
One of the worst abuses by experts is that they’re still telling kids to go to college.
For decades, they promised that the only path to success was a degree. But that advice has left millions of young people drowning in debt, angry at their parents, unable to find a job, and shackled to a system that radicalized them against the very values they grew up with.
It simply isn’t true.
Over and over, we see the same pattern: the “experts” insist they know best. They tell us to sit down and comply and then, when they’re wrong (and they often are) there’s no consequence for them.
But for us? For our kids? For regular everyday people just trying to get by?
The cost is enormous.
So maybe it’s time to stop outsourcing the most important decisions in life to people who don’t love our kids, who don’t share our values, and who don’t have to live with the fallout of their mistakes.
It’s why we’ve spent the last decade creating resources to help families think for themselves.
We’ve just launched a Bundle Builder tool that lets you pick and choose the Tuttle Twins books and resources that best fit your family’s needs. (I’m hearing great things from families who are using it to curate their perfect Tuttle Twins library.)
I suspect you are learning what I’ve been learning.
We don’t need someone else to tell us what’s best for our families. We only need the ability to think, reason, and research, and the confidence, conviction, and courage to trust our instincts.
Because at the end of the day, the only true expert on your health, your well-being, your future, and your family…is you.
— Connor
