Either be accepted as a trusted source of knowledge or insight

This is a very liberal attitude. CNN is a "trusted source of knowledge or insight" to millions of people but should it be? Absolutely fucking not.

The merit of what is being said and the evidence presented stands on its own, regardless of the source it is coming from. You should just content on merit, not on institutions and positions with manufactured prestige.

This whole mindset is what leads people to blindly believing anything they see from xyz source even when those sources put out mountains and mountains of absolute bullshit all the time.

In this very thread you have lied more than once, linking to content from russian state media with the claim that it says something it does not. That is a fact and not at all "ad hominem". Debatebro rubbish also became cringe at least a decade ago.