People can and will argue in whatever way serves their worldview, but I’m far more interested in quantitative evidence collected over a long period of time. The situation is far more complex than “I personally don’t see as many bugs these days as I used to which means insects are declining globally.” My caution is exactly the reason why I’m suspicious of arguments put across without evidence to accompany them.
As a side note, whether or not chemical companies are hiding evidence that their products are causing bee declines is very different to whether or not insects as a group are declining globally. Putting the probable corporate wrongdoing aside, honey bees are not native to most parts of the globe, and in these areas they are essentially cows with wings, they’re managed livestock. They can easily outcompete native bees and other native insects. So their very presence in some areas may be contributing to the decline of native insects. They’re also not the only insects that pollinate crops or wild plants, and in fact, they’re probably not the most important group of pollinators for wild biodiversity. People tend to assume bee populations are a mirror to how nature is doing in general.
Theres so much nuance and complexity tied up in this topic and current reporting is simply not doing a good job of unravelling it and explaining it (and this is certainly not only the fault of the media when you have study authors and press releases embellishing their findings).