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comment by OftenBen
OftenBen  ·  2949 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why do people form opinions on new subjects without learning about them ?

I want to comment on this with something wise, but I wholeheartedly agree that

    "everybody is entitled to their opinion"

Is tripe, and don't have anything more to say on the subject.

I can't tell you why people form opinions without relevant datum. I can't tell you how to talk to those people beyond 'try not to be an asshole' but I struggle with that myself.

Anti-intellectualism is still pretty hot right now, hopefully it will die out. But I doubt it.





user-inactivated  ·  2949 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    without relevant datum

It's "data", my friend. "datum" is the singular of "data", and since you haven't used an article, I presume that you've meant the latter.

"Everybody", indeed, "is entitled to their opinion", but recent activities in my university group made me think this over. I agree with that everyone should be allowed to think whatever they desire and interpret things to what seems best to them, but as soon as it affects any other person, it becomes not just the speaker's business - it's everyone-in-the-earshot's. I don't know how to expand on that idea at the time, but it felt important to share this bit.

oyster  ·  2949 days ago  ·  link  ·  

An article I read recently put it well that everybody was entitled to their informed opinion. If somebody doesn't even take the time to think up a reason at the very least or ignore facts they shouldn't expect people to respect their half-assed opinion.

Like I don't feel entitled to an opinion on which car part is best because I have no idea. Like how people have opinions on science when they really have no idea what they're talking about.

And of course opinion can be about things like which ice cream flavor they prefer which is just about personal preference.

user-inactivated  ·  2949 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That sounds reasonable. However, I'm not sure if you can deny people their right for an opinion by saying "you're not entitled to your opinion if it's not informed". Of course they are! - we are. It's just how human beings are; right for opinion next to right to think for oneself.

That being said, it sounds unreasonable to respect all kinds of opinions: not every one of them is well-informed, therefore implying and/or entailing nothing but bias and conformity - and there's nothing respectful in either of those. Think ill of others all you want - but as long as you have little or no basis for it, don't expect me to respect that.

"Niggas oughta be killed" is... no. Go fuck yourself; no. On the other hand, "Pseudointellectuals who display their phony education and understanding of the world are bad to listen to and stand in vicinity of in general because they confuse others with unbased confidence in a field they barely understand, thus leading to a more closed-off and excessively self-confident mind" and so on... I can get around to that.

user-inactivated  ·  2948 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    "Niggas oughta be killed"

the only people who would ever say this would do it with a hard R, just so you know.

user-inactivated  ·  2948 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Right. For some reason, I was thinking of the stereotypical black young men from "thuh neybahood" saying that, which is ridiculous. Thanks for letting me know.

oyster  ·  2948 days ago  ·  link  ·  

When people say they are entitled to their opinion it's generally because they are being dismissed. In that context it seems that what they mean is everybody is entitled to their opinion being heard. As if you can't tell somebody they are being ridiculous because hey they are entitled to their opinion. That's generally what people are diagareeing with when they say no you aren't entitled to an opinion.

oyster  ·  2949 days ago  ·  link  ·  

This is pretty much how I was feeling when I made this post ! I struggle a lot with the try not to be an asshole part. I mean how do you get into a discussion with somebody and then try to explain that you're leaving said discussion because they don't have a damn clue what they're talking about nicely? I don't think being nice matters though, or maybe I just meet salty people. Either way it normally ends in me being called a bitch, lame for watching the news or my favourite politically correct. It's my favourite because they thought that term meant either somebody who is correct about politics or somebody who corrects falsehoods about them. It took me a while to understand how they came to that "insult" until I realized that the only possible way is if they had no idea what it meant.

I too hope it dies out but I have my doubts as well.