The question seems self obvious. How much do you allow society to obliterate your identity?
Dear Og, no. I’m afraid to voice popular opinions.
I’ll wait and see how the polling goes.
Only very unpopular opinions.
I can not stand alone against many angry probable stalkers. But if 10% of people agree with me, I am empowered.
I’m more afraid to do it online than offline.
I do not agree with most American values. But I can be intimidated by an angry Great Majority.
I’ll say unpopular shit (outside of work) in real life, but everything I say on the internet gets categorized, organized and becomes searchable forever. You’d think knowledge of this fact would stop me but I still say stupid shit online.
Definitely. I wish I had offline friends with whom I could talk privately.
Like I care what anyone else thinks about me. In other words — nope, not a bit.
Most American Society’s opinions are worthless. But being stalked is not fun.
Afraid? afraid of what? I’m not in junior high any more.
Why would I? My opinions are mine, and why should anyone’s disagreement mean anything?
But I have to disagree with the poll’s “proud to be different.” Difference, in and of itself, means nothing.
If I am talking in a group of what I consider close minded unreasonable people I will very often just stay away from certain topics because once i get started it seldom ends well.
When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a non-conformist, so that I’d fit in.
Now that I’m more self-confident, I want to be mainstream to distinguish myself from all the annoying hipsters that seem to be everywhere.
This! I do hold one or two contrarian views, and I need no more than hint at them to be dusted with filthy names for it. Here on the SDMB! Depressing!
I think everyone has an opinion somewhere that they keep to themselves because discussing it outside an audience that they know will be in agreement, or at least won’t condemn them, could cause some big problems.
Otherwise, it depends on who I’m with.
Definitely – sadly Liberals more so then Conservatives are known to stalk those who offend them.
I find that I’m usually willing to discuss unpopular opinions as far as geopolitics - things like Taiwan independence, etc. but have a hard time facing up to majority opinion on other issues.
Other times it really depends specifically on the audience. If the topic is feminism or SSM or abortion or some topic on which people hold intensely strong, unyielding views, then sometimes I’ll avoid discussion simply because I know there’s almost zero chance of swaying someone else’s opinion, and they’ll simply hate me for it. Some people really take the George W. Bush post-9/11 view on certain matters: “You’re either with us or against us.”
Could this be confirmation bias?
My target audience is never those who disagree with me, but my goal is to find those who agree with me. American Liberals can be extremely aggressive. I argued with many people on Russian and English forums – even Russian Nationalists are not as angry.
In Pakistan, however, people can be killed for blaspheming against Islam.