The Weaponization of Expertise

The problem with expertise—and the dark side of the equation “knowledge = power.”

Experts are not infallible. Treating them as such has done us all a grave disservice and, as The Weaponization of Expertise makes painfully clear, given rise to the very populism that all-knowing experts and their elite coterie decry. Jacob Hale Russell and Dennis Patterson use the devastating example of the COVID-19 pandemic to illustrate their case, revealing how the hubris of all-too-human experts undermined—perhaps irreparably—public faith in elite policymaking. Paradoxically, by turning science into dogmatism, the overweening elite response has also proved deeply corrosive to expertise itself—in effect, doing exactly what elite policymakers accuse their critics of doing.

A much-needed corrective to a dangerous blind faith in expertise, The Weaponization of Expertise identifies a cluster of pathologies that have enveloped many institutions meant to help referee expert knowledge, in particular a disavowal of the doubt, uncertainty, and counterarguments that are crucial to the accumulation of knowledge. At a time when trust in expertise and faith in institutions are most needed and most lacking, this work issues a stark reminder that a crisis of misinformation may well begin at the top.Dedication
Epigraphs
Table of Contents
Preface: “Just Follow the Science”
Chapter 1. Expertise Corrupted
PART I. AN OVERPLAYED HAND: The Age of Mindless Expertise
Chapter 2. Elites and Expert Culture
Chapter 3. The Misuse of Expertise
Chapter 4. Explaining the Abuse of Expertise
PART II. CALLING THEIR BLUFF: Populists Against Experts
Chapter 5. Misunderstanding Populism
Chapter 6. Populist Habits of Mind
Chapter 7. Expertise in Policy
PART III. DOUBLING DOWN: Weaponizing the Charge of Misinformation
Chapter 8. Much Ado about Misinformation
Chapter 9. Merchants of Overconfidence
Chapter 10. The Closing of the Elite Mind
Conclusion. Giving Political Judgment a Chance
Acknowledgments
Works CitedNamed one of "The Best Books of 2025" by the New Yorker.

"The Weaponization of Expertise does not possess (or attempt) the grandeur of The Constitution of Knowledge. Rauch sets out to draft a constitution, whereas Russell and Patterson are merely prosecuting a case. But as a diagnosis of our political predicament, the latter offers the stronger account. CoK is too dismissive of populist discontent to help us make sense of it, and its noble abstractions float too far above the rough-and-tumble of our actual cultural conflicts. Russell and Hale’s seemingly simple story (in brief: elites overreach, populists call them out, elites double down) ultimately described these conflicts in a more realistic and grounded manner."
—Fusion“Jacob Hale Russell and Dennis Patterson’s new book The Weaponization of Expertise: How Elites Fuel Populism could not be a more relevant book for this moment. Russell and Patterson deliver an unflinching look at the Oz-like nature of many of today’s experts along with a wonderful recounting of why skepticism in all its forms has been a valued trait throughout history. And they offer a possible path for how to be a thoughtful human in today’s world.”
—Bethany McLean, best-selling coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron
 
“Jacob Hale Russell and Dennis Patterson make a convincing case on why elites, experts, and merchants of overconfidence fail so often and so majestically. Admonitions to ‘follow the science’ and put trust in spurious, conflicted and overconfident expertise may be at odds with serious science and rational decision-making.”
—John P.A. Ioannidis, Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University
 
“Expertise is essential to progress, but as Russell and Patterson clearly document, it is too often weaponized today to suppress healthy skepticism and dissent despite both being required in the search for truth within and outside the academy.”
—Jeffrey S. Flier, Higginson Professor of Physiology and Medicine and Former Dean, Harvard Medical SchoolJacob Hale Russell is Associate Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School.

Dennis Patterson is Board of Governors Professor at Rutgers Law School and Professor of Legal Philosophy at Surrey Law School, UK. He is the author, with Michael Pardo, of Minds, Brains, and Law.