If an individual has not made an individual commitment to shine light on all the dark parts of the mind - no, you cannot trust them (explanation follows).
Instead, you can trust them to be what they are. A system. A snapshot of reality - a closed circuit. A system with triggers, with a program, with emotional response and emotional cycles. A system that is not necessarily evil - but in essence, if it continues to choose to remain ignorant and makes choices to retain its ignorance - is not conscious.
It is a lonely feeling when you feel that you cannot trust those around you. Nor should we throw babies out with bathwaters (a funny habit of the polarized mind).
It IS time though to get our minds out of the gutter, out of depression and irrational emotional cycles reacting to chosen ignorance.
We need instead to stand.
This means - taking responsibility of our reality the same way we have taken responsibility of it individually - we shine a light on the dark parts of the collective mind.
We force the collective to see.
Unfortunately, if the only way they can see and want to see is by having it forced in their faces - it proves that they are not conscious. But, get over it!
Consciousness wants to discover itself constantly - consciousness is not dead - it is alive because of its inquisitiveness.
It is important to first recognise the self as a system in order to depart from system behaviour.
This takes courage and humility.
The decision to know the self no matter what is an individual one taken alone.
As more individual lights shine their light on the whole - the rest of the collective will get taken up in the wave of change.
Does this inherently change anything though?
No.
Nothing has changed - it's all just been re-arranged. Ignorance still exists as much as the striving for consciousness. The collective made a decision to be conscious based on a trend = not a truly conscious decision.
We as the truth would-be knowers must also come to terms with our addiction to 'spreading the truth'.
We must see the patterns in our own behaviour and we must stop trying to control.
The fight is addictive. Conflict is addictive.
Polarization locks down the rational mind.
In all aspects of life we need to encourage openness, a reset of information and infinite possibilities. We need to encourage the fertile ground for change and not change itself because the longest lasting change is change that grows on its own.
If we force a change by forcing truth realisation we create a timed experience in the future when the same cycle will be repeated sooner.
The cycle always repeats.