The Trust Apocalypse
Aemula Writer Spotlight - 6.19.25
“If trust breaks down, so too does society.”
— The Trust Foundation
The “trust apocalypse”, as coined by The Trust Foundation, describes the multi-decade decline of trust in American institutions, corporations, and individuals. Without trust, social cohesion deteriorates, presenting an existential threat to our current way of life and our capacity for future progress.
Founded by individuals who served with Joint Special Operations Command during the Global War on Terror, The Trust Foundation brings deep experience in building catalytic communities while drawing on the leadership principles of retired four-star General Stan McChrystal. They are on a mission to combat the trust apocalypse and preserve the communities and institutions worthy of the trust of future generations.
Aemula shares this commitment as we seek to restore trust in media by designing an open-source, censorship-resistant, incentive-aligned protocol for independent journalism.
Our current media systems are failing us as they continue to devolve civil discourse, limiting the extent we can effectively communicate across ideologies. If we lose our ability to collaborate at scale, we will be unable to face the increasingly difficult technological and societal challenges that arise in our rapidly changing environment.
“What’s at stake is nothing less than the fabric of society itself.”
— The Trust Foundation
This week, we highlight the first three parts of The Trust Foundation’s four-part series on the trust apocalypse, which are also now available on Aemula!
We encourage you to subscribe to the Trust Apocalypse directly and sign up for Aemula so you do not miss Part IV when it is released next week!
Part I: Where are we?
“Over the past several decades, trust—once the unseen glue holding our society together—has steadily eroded. Trust in institutions—government, media organizations, the scientific establishment, the judiciary, academia, health, and organized religion, to name a few—trust in Corporate America, and perhaps more worryingly, trust in each other, have all declined. Multi-decade polls, from Gallup and the Pew Research Center to Edelman’s annual trust surveys, confirm that this is a widespread and enduring trend, not a transient phase.”
Part II — How did we get here?
“it started in the 1980s with the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine5, followed by the rise of radio “talking heads” and the transformation of news into a profit-driven enterprise. These changes have all contributed to an informational landscape that thrives on division and sensationalism.
Matt Taibbi, in his book Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another, describes how starting in the 1990s, media began to pry families apart systematically, set group against group, and more and more make news consumption a bubble-like, “safe space” stimulation of the vitriolic reflex
(…)
The advent of 24-hour news cycles, social media platforms, hyper-targeted digital advertising, and the attention and surveillance economy has further fragmented public discourse. Influential analyses—such as DiResta’s on the triad of influencers, algorithms, and crowd dynamics7—warn that this attention economy is inherently prone to amplifying extreme views and deepening social divides.”
Part III: What can we do about it?
“While none of the examples above are necessarily the solution, they at least point toward the thinking needed to reinvent the democratic and journalistic institutions society has historically relied on to make sense of the world. Solutions that call on the better angels of our nature, reduce polarization, and help find common ground; solutions that avoid the perverse incentives of the attention economy and its inherent self-aggrandizement. The goal is to create transparent, accountable, and adaptable systems where institutions prioritize the public good over self-preservation.”
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