Really, people have been downright mean to anyone who doesn't flash a credential. Being an autodidact seems to be dismissed off hand. I've even encountered people who were dismissive of Mark Twain because he didn't go to college.
Okay, after the Rittenhouse case, the head of the New York Bar Association interviewed Thomas Binger, the prosecutor on the case. I don't know how strong of a lawyer Binger is. He didn't choose the Rittenhouse case, and he was dealing with a case that was dead on arrival to anybody with a functioning eye and a functioning brain; but, when these two people, who clearly went to law school and got their credentials were talking, Binger was asked if he would appeal the acquittal of Rittenhouse.
I didn't go to law school and I know that it's basic law that you can't appeal an unanimous acquittal. Binger was smart enough to point that out; but, it's horrifying that a practicing lawyer would get that completely fucking wrong.
That said, to put an appropriate amount of fault on Binger, the famous, "Don't get brazen with me." moment in the trial was in response to Binger violating basic Fifth Amendment law. Ya know, the kind of stuff that we should all have learned in high school.
Recently, a home owner in New York shot a burglar in his own home.
An apparent "legal expert" was interviewed. This guy is Albert Parisi, who did go to law school and get the credentials that I didn't. He said that under New York State law, you can only use deadly force if you yourself are facing a deadly threat, and that New York doesn't have a castle doctrine.
I know that this is wrong. I didn't go to law school. I've never lived in New York. I looked this guy up and he's basically Lionel Huts.
New York, despite having some of the stupidest gun laws in the country, and being one of the eleven duty to retreat states, has a pretty strong castle doctrine and statues that do allow the use of deadly force in defense of certain property, including your home.
So, this guy went to college, got the degree, got the credentials, is practicing law in New York, and got interviewed in regard to a legal case as an expert on the matter. Everybody on the illiberal Left who I've encountered in the last three years would listen to this guy, take him as an authority, and think that, if a violent criminal is in your home, you just have to gather your wife and kids and leave the home and hope for the best.
The thing is, when you combine the appeal to authority fallacy with the push for everybody going to college, you end up with a passionate support for trusting a bunch of fucking morons.