In God We Trust... But Not Much Else

Paranoia may be defined as "suspicion and mistrust of people or their actions without evidence or justification." But what if there is evidence and justification for your beliefs?

According to the Pew Research Center (December 14, 2017) Public trust in the government remains near historic lows. Only 18% of Americans today say they can trust the government in Washington to do what is right “just about always” (3%) or “most of the time” (15%). 

A September 14, 2016 Gallup Poll found that Americans' trust and confidence in the mass media "to report the news fully, accurately and fairly" has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, with only 32% saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media.

On July 10, 2017 Gallup reported that confidence in police is back at its historical average of 57% of American expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the police. This statistic however masks the general lack of trust in the police by Blacks, where only 30% expressed trust in the police, Hispanics 45%, Liberals 39%, all persons Age 18-34, 44%, and those individuals identifying with the Democratic party 44%.

The Atlantic (January 21, 2018) stated "It used to be that what Edelman labels the “informed public”—those aged 25 to 64 who have a college degree, regularly consume news, and are in the top 25 percent of household income for their age group—placed far greater trust in institutions than the U.S. public as a whole. This year, however, the gap all but vanished, with trust in government in particular plummeting 30 percentage points among the informed public. America is now home to the least-trusting informed public of the 28 countries that the firm surveyed... Distrust is growing most among younger, high-income Americans."

Harvard Business Review (January 16, 2017) reported that only 37% of people globally trust CEOs of businesses to do what's right.

When government agencies, by their own admission, use patterns of false arrests and detentions, attacks on homes and friendships, and attempt to impede political groups from using their First Amendment rights to protest and speak out against the government this completely destroys trust in those agencies.