People have fear from lack of knowledge. Knowledge brings empowerment and the ability for self determination, and diminishes fear.

Please do check out the Trivium and Quadrivium. Beware of the manipulations of the Trivium used to alter it's function from a way to derive truth from the senses and logic. The Neo-Platonists manipulated it to create a theistic, authoritarian control structure, and the Prussian school remade it to create willing soldiers. Wikipedia is also infested with this manipulation.

The ideas of the Trivium and Quadrivium need to be taken in order to arrive at the truth, much in the same way that there is an order of operations for math. Speaking of math...

The order, as I have found useful for understanding the world, is Trivium: grammar, logic, classical rhetoric, and the Quadrivium: math, geometry, music, and astronomy. Separated or taken out of order, they can be easily manipulated.

Academia is filthy with conflict of interest, appeal from authority, appeal to popularity, and the genetic fallacy. I find the best way is to learn the basics of intellectual self defense and interpret the data as best one can.

One of the most useful tools I've employed is a continuing attempt to try to prove myself wrong, as I find it too easy to simply dismiss the arguments of others. Dismissal, without understanding is an all too common occurrence with the online chaos, where misinformation is rife, and there is no real way to determine the sincerity of the interactions had. Don't believe everything you read, in fact, doubt everything until it is understood at a fundamental level.

Trust yourself, but first make sure you are someone whom you CAN trust.