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It varies, I think the most important part for any kind of online discussion is to establish credibility based on the argument not credibility based on title or degree.
It's also important to recognize a challenge on its own merits. I don't care if you flip burgers at Wendy's, if you can argue a point on the merits I'll hear you out (and try to politely explain why you're wrong -- in understandable language -- if needed).
I hate the "trust me bro I'm a X, it's an elite field, it would take years to explain this to you and you wouldn't even understand anyways" attitude some professionals take. The real experts that I've met and I respect can simplify the subject matter they're an expert of (to be digestible and reasonable to most people) and I aspire to be that insightful.
That's totally fair, I agree.
The version that upsets me most is when I offer a perspective from my expertise, well founded and reasonable, and rather than ask questions to understand or offer a competing idea, people so often just say that I must be an idiot and know nothing about the topic.
I can hardly reply with "no, you're the stupid one!" coz that just really doesn't help.
There are serious limits to this. We can’t discount title/degree because you can’t possibly be able to accurately assess the credibility of every argument.
If a doctor shows me a picture and says “you have cancer, here’s the tumor,” I’m going to probably take that at face value. Because I can’t assess the imaging like they/their technician can, which I am basing off their credentials.
Any doctor worth their salt is going to be able to answer the question "how do you know that?" way better than "I just do" or "I have a medical degree" and that's the point; I've yet to find a problem space where that isn't the case. I don't try to win arguments by waiving my credentials around and I don't expect people to take my for "my word" just because of my credentials.
There are plenty of people with titles and fancy degrees that are not worth listening to, like the Ohio doctor (that somehow recently got her medical license back) that claimed the COVID vaccine was making people magnetic, Dr. Oz, etc.
Put another way, do you trust the alleged internet licensed electrician that says a ground wire makes you safer but can't explain why, the alleged internet licensed electrician that says a ground wire is worthless, or the person that says "fuck who I am, ground wires are important because they allow tying things like a metal mixer's body to an incomplete circuit, so that if the metal becomes electrified the circuit is instantly completed and the breaker trips. Alternatively, the circuit becomes completed when you touch the metal and you might die before the breaker trips. If you don't have a ground you can protect humans with a GFCI which detects current loss at the outlet and cuts the power locally. However, a GFCI may not detect some situations that a ground wire would resolve, like an arc that makes use of a grounded portion of the appliance and may generate enough heat to start a fire. AFCIs have been created to help detect this situation. However, both GFCI and AFCI can fail and thus a ground wire is still a useful backup option that also has value for some sensitive electronics."?
Most professionals aren't going to volunteer all of that, but many will volunteer more and more if challenged/questioned.
For reference, my background is in Software Engineering but my father is an electrician at a factory, and a good friend of mine is a forensic electrical engineer. I have no formal credentials in electrical engineering ... but I do know a fair bit about the what and why ... because I have been inquisitive, I've questioned the experts that I've come across to understand their field and learned from them.
I didn’t say they go “just trust me” and we both know plenty of people can’t assess even a good explanation.