"What does it mean to think with others even if, or particularly when, our living conditions may not be conducive to thought?"

Reality is not in people’s heads as much as it is created through the interaction of specific groups of people in specific times and places.

This essay examines the uneasy return of expertise during Covid-19 and asks how much epistemic trust a democracy can sustain without sliding into expert domination. Using the figure of the “Free Nose Guy,” it explores tensions between epistemic self-reliance, equality, and authority, arguing that distrust in experts is inseparable from social inequality while also highlighting the political effects of epistemic hierarchies.