This has been sitting with me for a few days now and I just can't understand why somebody wouldn't take the time to research however I keep coming back to a belief in the old idea that "everybody is entitled to their opinion". I hate that idea.
The particular area that bothers me so much lately is politics as you likely guessed but it's very true for other areas of interest. Lets say tomorrow I decided all of a sudden I like cars. I would go in with an open mind, research and accept whatever knowledge people where willing to give me. Of course at some point I would start to develop my own opinions but they would be informed opinions. That seems so logical, but it seems like many people don't think that way. Hell I'm from a small town and we get plenty of people who will go on about how their truck brand is better than the other when really they have no idea. From what I gather they all break down constantly yet reliably last for years simultaneously. Now when I hear somebody educated talk about stuff like that it's generally pointing out that x brand had a bad reputation early on (possibly for good reason) and although they improved it stuck with them. Same with computers.
What I'm baffled by lately though is the number of young people in my province who don't even know we have a provincial government. ( sorry any users from Ontario) This wouldn't be that bad if they didn't know and also didn't care to comment but they do. It seems like "Thanks Trudeau" will be replacing "Thanks Obama" pretty soon. I can recall another time I was talking to somebody about First Nations issues ( a conversation they started with their opinion) only to find out they had no idea what Residential Schools were. When they attempted to say they didn't have time to research every little detail they finished off by saying " what do you do, watch the news or something". As if watching the news was lame and equated to no life.
I sat with a friend once who felt the same thing and yet also agreed with me that neither of us were all that smart. Neither of us actually went out of our way to be educated on these topics and we couldn't understand how others had ended up where they are. Especially in this age where you can not only google anything but you can google how to google well in order to find accurate info. So when these debates inevitably end with the other person chiming in that I must think I'm so smart I have to concede that actually I really don't but I wish I did.
Anyways, rant over...opinions ?