A Problem with Believing

A recent opinion survey found that only 31% of the population trusts our Federal Government. That opinion is highly related to political affiliation, and nearly 100% of the people polled stated that they did NOT trust politicians who did not align with their beliefs. We have a problem with believing. When we can’t trust any element of our world, it creates a powerful issue of confidence that interferes with normal, healthy behavior. I wish I had answers to all of these questions, but perhaps if we recognize issues, we can begin to solve them.

In my video, I describe my decades of professional experience interacting with law enforcement, politicians, business leaders, rank-and-file workers, clergy, and, in short, every type and class of human. I would like to testify that people are honorable and can be trusted. Unfortunately, as my video describes, that is untrue. When faced with threats to their personal safety or that of their family, offered money, or even threatened with losing their employment, people will almost invariably succumb to corruption and accept their involvement. Often the guilt for these acts is reconciled by assigning responsibility to their bosses, or as general acceptance that it isn’t their problem. One area of this fact that is particularly challenging is the corrupt and criminal behavior of the law enforcement, legal, and judicial system. Unfortunately, even in professions that we rely on for accuracy and truth in evidence, such as in the forensic sciences, malfeasance is a well-documented problem. Several types of cases are worth distinguishing:

**Medical examiners/coroners fabricating or falsifying findings
**

Steven Hayne (Mississippi) — A medical examiner who, over decades, performed the vast majority of the state’s autopsies and was later found to have given scientifically unsupportable testimony in multiple wrongful conviction cases, sometimes in coordination with a bite-mark “expert” whose methods were later discredited. Several convictions were overturned as a result, including that of Kennedy Brewer, who spent years on death row before DNA evidence exonerated him.

Charles Smith (Ontario, Canada) — A pediatric pathologist whose flawed autopsy conclusions in dozens of child-death cases led to wrongful convictions and family separations. A public inquiry later found serious problems with his methodology and testimony, and several convictions were overturned.

West Virginia State Police crime lab (Fred Zain) — A forensic serologist found to have fabricated and falsified blood/hair analysis results in numerous criminal cases over more than a decade. A state Supreme Court investigation found his conduct so pervasive that any case he touched was considered suspect, leading to multiple exonerations.

Evidence suppression/withholding by prosecutors or law enforcement (Brady violations)

Cases where exculpatory medical evidence (autopsy details, injury inconsistencies, toxicology results) was withheld from the defense — a Brady v. Maryland violation. These happen with some regularity and are a major driver of wrongful conviction exonerations tracked by organizations like the Innocence Project.

Example: the case of the “West Memphis Three”, where questions were later raised about how forensic/medical evidence was handled and interpreted at trial.

Systemic crime lab scandals
Annie Dookhan (Massachusetts, drug lab) — Not medical exactly, but a forensic chemist who fabricated test results on drug samples, leading to the dismissal of tens of thousands of criminal cases once discovered.

Massachusetts’ second lab scandal (Sonja Farak) — Another chemist found to have been using drug evidence herself while falsifying lab results, again leading to mass case dismissals.

Why does this keep happening?

Common threads researchers point to:

Lack of independent oversight — many crime labs historically operated under police or prosecutor offices rather than independent bodies, creating pressure to produce results favorable to the prosecution.

“Testimony by authority” problem — juries tend to trust forensic experts heavily, so even shaky science or outright fabrication can go unchallenged for years.

Backlogs and incentive structures — some examiners were paid per autopsy or reviewed with little quality control, incentivizing speed over rigor.

While we would like to believe that these represent only a few isolated cases, the truth is that this kind of corruption is deep within human nature. While I have encountered rare individuals who are principled, those examples are very rare. I can tell you that, based on decades of building code enforcement, sitting on industry and corporate boards, and providing forensic consulting as part of an attorney general task force on corruption between industry and government, every jurisdiction, agency, and legislature is corrupt. All of them.

The Facts About Social Media

There are specific areas of our society that tend to garner credibility. We just talked about the corruption and lack of credibility in our authority structures, but another source of corruption is in the realm of social media.

Are you aware that aged Facebook accounts can be purchased or even created, then backfilled with content that has been backdated to appear authentic? Bulk friend-adding services using bots can rapidly inflate a friend or followers list, sometimes using networks of other fake accounts that automatically accept each other. There is even a black-market industry selling fake friends, followers, likes, and comments produced by bots or low-paid workers in foreign countries. Of course, the intent of this activity is to make an account look organic and popular when it isn’t. One of the hallmarks of these accounts is that they are “private”, so you can’t chase the friends list, and all of the visible posts are of flowers, or beach scenes, boats, cars, or animals. These kinds of posts can be rapidly created and need little in the way of supporting interaction from real friends or followers.

One of the most common uses of these fake accounts is to sway public opinion by posting condescending disagreements that contribute no substantial argument based on facts, but support the agenda that is being promoted. Many of these repeat popular talking points that are intentionally emotional and resonate with the bias being promoted, creating belief and alignment with their cause. They use ploys to increase credibility with their target audience, such as profile images of women wearing religious symbols, or whose clothing, hairstyles, tattoos, or other adornments suggest an alignment of values.

When there is enough money either at risk or available to pour into public influence, the employment of thousands of fake social media accounts can sway financial donations, public opinion in high-profile legal cases, or even our elections.

The Mainstream Media

You have probably seen the examples of dozens of media faces repeating the same talking points, either using the same phrases or often word for word. They use language intended to instill feelings of assurance and confidence in the message, and frequently involve personality figures that engender credibility with their intended audience. This was used for decades in the advertising industry. One particular example was of actors who portrayed trustworthy doctors in television shows, endorsing products. The use of credibility to promote vitamins, financial products, cleaning products, and many other examples is familiar to us all.

In one current example, our disingenuous media is the coordinated use of the word “overwhelming evidence,” which became a point of ridicule to the degree that the pundits began using the term “mountain of evidence”. Of course, that shift was quickly recognized, and it also became the butt of jokes.

In June 2026, a YouGov/Center for Integrity in News Reporting poll found that just 12% of the population trust that media outlets present facts without intentionally omitting important context. That implies that 88% of the population does not trust our mainstream media.

I cannot say that having a problem of believing is more in place today than in the bulk of human history, but I can say that we have never before been so inundated with messaging, nor have we seen a time when it is so easy to create large quantities of it in an attempt to sway our opinions.

Evidence of Authenticity

If you are interacting with comments in public forums, there are certain tests that you can apply to determine whether you are interacting with a real person.

The comments address facts and details, rather than just representing banal attempts to cast doubt or disagreement without dealing with subject matter.

The comments are ad hominem attacks on the messenger, not dealing with the details of the debate. There is a big difference between disagreement and substantive argument.

The account is private, and you are unable to see anything other than generalized images that represent a consistent theme. These are often photos of flowers, landscapes, sunsets, cars, boats, animals, or other easily acquired images.

Look for cross-links to YouTube videos made by the person, blog sites where they detail their opinions, books they have written, or other evidence of some expertise on the subject. This kind of content is very difficult to backfill just to support a public opinion manipulation.

Look for some evidence of conversations in the comments in their posts. It is easy to populate posts with responses like, “That’s great”, or “Good point, bro.”

Finally, be wary of comments that reflect common talking points or biased blurbs. In one current debate, there are a large number of responses that repeat statements like “He’s guilty!” or “He confessed!” Others pose questions that appear over and over, like “Why would he turn himself in if he wasn’t guilty?” These kinds of comments are easily promoted using auto-generators and boosting bots.

Manipulating Data and Devices

The final point I want to make is that technology allows us to do things like manipulate social media accounts, post fake text messages that appear to come from devices, alter images, auto-generate posts to social media, and even fabricate or manipulate “pinging” cellular locations using GPS spoofing so that it appears someone was in a location they weren’t. AI and other programming technology allow for email attacks that appear to come from a specific account, and there have been documented cases where foreign threat actors have auto-generated hundreds of thousands of email attacks from fake accounts, and millions of cyber attacks on our infrastructure. More than ever, a problem with believing is NOT an indication of being a conspiracy theorist; it is simply acknowledging a need to be ever vigilant in a technology world that contains so much corruption and provides a greater potential for manipulation.

About The Author

I’m the author of nine published novels about a team of assassins and have seven more in process. I am also the instructor of the Udemy Course, Becoming an Author: The Master Class Series. In that course, I share practical advice on writing, publishing, promotion, audiobook production, and marketing. Learn more at vscampbell.com or explore my Udemy course if you’d like to learn a complete system for becoming the most prolific author of quality literature. Don’t be one of the 95% of authors whose work is rejected due to a lack of merit. These skills can be learned. For the first ten sessions of the course, and to get the rest of the classes in Becoming an Author: The Master Class Series, use this discount coupon and pay only $19.99 for a $150 value! You can save thousands of dollars by learning to handle every aspect of authoring your work yourself, rather than hiring editors and audio production professionals.

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