Are you entitled to your opinion

Great Debates
1

The “average” person posesses only mediocre knowledge. At best he/she is only really knowledgeable about one or two subjects. Even so, few are expert enough even in their own narrow rubrick to be qualified as expert witnesses in a court of law, where their opinion would be valid testimony.

Since by definition, the average person is pretty much a general idiot, why does it matter what he/she thinks?

Why do people say you are entitled to your opinion?

I really don’t think you are. I think it’s a kiss off.

“Jack’s up on the hill out back. He thinks the aliens are coming to take him away. [sigh] Well, I guess he’s entitled to his opinion.”

Some seem to think that because it’s “their opinion,” this somehow lends some credibility to it. It doesn’t.

An opinion is not a fact, it may not even be a possibility.

An opinion in the hands of one not qualified to deal with it is a dangerous thing:

“I don’t think this gun is loaded.”

“I’m not too drunk to drive.”

“I think Chester the Molester will make a good babysitter.”

“I don’t think it’s plugged in.”

“{insert minority} are inferior and should be destroyed.”

You should need a license to have an opinion.

Some folks are constantly upgrading their opinions based on new knowledge. It happens on this board occasionally, and it’s laudable.

Such people are pursuing truth. Their opinions which are based on consideration and evidence carry weight.

More often people cling to their sad pathetic and demonstrably false opinions in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

This most often occurs when people identify with their opinions. They are based neither on evidence, nor consideration. They are not under any circumstances subject to modification. Such people are ignorant. Their opinion carries no weight.

Being married to your opinions is proof that you are not really competant to have them.

Being willing to drop your opinion for a better one is proof that you’re entitled to have it.

That’s my opinion.

2

…and you’re entitled to it.

Profanity is the crutch of the inarticulate mother-fucker.

3

Saw that coming.

4

I tend to agree.

Ignorant opinions don’t bother me so much as the attention that inevitably gets paid to them. It seems that you can always find some ignorant puss spewing forth on the television simply because he holds a strong opinion on something. The fact that his opinion might be unsupportable or ludicrous never seems to diminish the air time devoted to his tirade.

FWIW, though, I think the expression, “everyone’s entitled to his opinion” is worth having. Although it’s a cliche, it embodies the first amendment. A country full of ignorant opinions is better than one in which intelligent ones are swept under the rug and suppressed.

Ignorant since 1972

5

If nobody was entitled to an opinion, we wouldn’t have this board.

Seriously, we’re entitled to our opinions because our ancestors said we were. They left their homelands & came here, because they weren’t allowed to freely express their opinions about religion. Of course, they then began to express their opinions a bit too forcefully to the natives that were already here, but that’s another thread.

There’s an old saying that goes “Opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one.” Just hink–if no one had opinions, no one would have assholes. And that would really be icky, don’t you think?

Cristi, Slayer of Peeps

I made my husband join a bridge club. He jumps next Tuesday.

(title & sig courtesy of UncleBeer and WallyM7!)

6

I believe average people have more knowledge than you suspect.

I don’t know, it depends on how you define knowledge in the first place.

I don’t think you can rely on academia (is that a word?)

I try to understand everyone’s point of view. I think it enriches one to know all aspects of human thought.

That’s my opinion.

There’s always another beer.

7

I am not sure what you want to propose. If people hold “bad” opinions, does taking away their right to have them somehow make them not have them anymore? The only thing you can really prevent is the expression of opinions, not the opinions themselves.

8

It is not the having or even the expressing of opinions that I object to; it is people who think that a person’s “opinon” is sacrosanct. I’ve had many a conversation like this:

Other: A is B

Me: No, it is not, because of p, q, and r, as described in publications x and z.

Other: Well, we each have our opinions. You’ve got no right to question mine.

Postmodernist philosphy sorta kinda holds that since truth is non-exitant or unachieveable, all versions of it are equally valid, or rather equally invalid. Therefore, any given opinion is equally valid (invalid). To assert one’s own views, however well founded, then gains a taint of bigotry–who are you to impose your views on anyone? A sort of twisted reflection of this philosophy has seeped down from the ivory towers into our education system, and now many people, who are ownly dimly aware of the theroy behind it, use a pop psych version to justify not defending their opinions.

I think it is all hogwash. Opinions do vary in quality, and there is a real difference between a supported and an unsupported opinion. Sure, people have the right to an opinion–and everyone else has the right to say it is wrong.

9

If I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you.

10

I for one, firmly believe that everyone is entitled to MY opinion!

…IMHO :wink:

11

Everybody is entitled to their own opinion in the sense than nobody can or should prohibit them from holding it.

But that doesn’t mean that their opinion is worth anything.

I’m entitled to hold opinions on nuclear physics, but since I don’t know anything about it, my opinions are almost completely worthless.

“I’m entitled to my opinion” is a fairly good indicator that the speaker’s opinion is not worth listening to.

12

It’s one thing to have an opinion about something for which there is no proof or evidence or tangibility - “I believe God exists,” for example, or “I think pimentos are the best food ever.” :slight_smile: But to have an opinion that flies directly in the face of something for which there is quantifiable contradictory evidence or contradictory to opinions/theories/research by people more knowledgable or considered expert on a subject makes one look asinine; for example, “I think homosexuality is a choice,” my personal favorite, when every expert says it isn’t - there is a difference between what it is and what you (incorrectly) think it is. How can you not agree with gravity? How can you have an opinion about oxygen?

Should we still have an opinion? Yes. Should we express it? Yes. Should we be adamant? Yes. Should we be respected for it? Not necessarily. Should we demand to be respected for it? No.

And my sig line used to be, “The next time I want your opinion I’ll beat it out of you!”

Esprix

Ask the Gay Guy! (or, if you prefer the Jesusfied version, Asketh the damn Priest Guy!)

13

“It seems that you can always find some ignorant puss spewing forth on the television simply because he holds a strong opinion on something.”

Case in point: Camille Paglia.

14

And generally speaking, both should be covered up and exposed only to one’s most intimate friends and then only by request.

Crystalguy

15

My opinion is that Scylla’s just being obtuse again. But that’s just my – never mind.

16

I really hate it when I make an argument, and people say, “Well, that’s just your opinion.” What, I suppose what you have to say isn’t your opinion, but complete and utter factual truth, personally handed to you by God?

17

Beeruser:

you said:

“I believe average people have more knowledge than you suspect.”

You may be getting me wrong. If you take Joe Average off the street and interview him, I fully suspect that he would be chock full of in-depth knowledge on several subjects.

Pick somebody else, and it will probably be the same thing with different subject matter.

Take the statistical average, and by definition the overall knowledge will be mediocre. That’s inherent in the definitions, and not subject to opinion. :slight_smile:

It’s a provable tenant of investing that the consensus is wrong, and the majority of investors are always making the wrong choices.

The statistical Joe Average is an idiot. It has to be that way.

18

Yeah, but there is no Joe Average.

Does that mean there are no idiots?

rocks

19

It’s one thing for someone to have an opinion based upon either factual documentation. It’s another, but equally okay, thing to have an opinion on something which you have divine evidence for, a la faith.

Using the ever-familiar “Creation vs. Evolution” debate, if someone were to say, “The universe is quite old, we arrived via abiogenesis, and subsequently evolved,” that person would have a mountain of evidence which substantiates their opinion as a fact.

Another person might say, “I believe that the evidence shows those things, but I have faith that God did it in His way as told in Genesis,” that person has their faith which substantiates their opinion as… Well, maybe not fact, but a truth to them and like-minded followers.

The problem I have is when someone comes along and says, “The Theory of Evolution is wrong because it’s only a theory, there’s missing links, moondust is wrong, and (insert random bullshit creationist claim here).”

In this case, an opinion is had, but it is not backed with anything other than erroneous information which is verifiably erroneous.

So, is that person entitled to their opinion? Well, SURE! You’re ALWAYS entitled to an opinion! But I am equally entitled to say, “you’re wrong,” and provide evidence WHY they’re wrong.

Now, which opinion bears more weight in the grand scheme of things?

Yer pal,
Satan

20

The way I see it, everyone has a right to an opinion, but the only opinions worth attention are informed opinions. As TomH has said, my opinion is valueless if I have no expertise in the field in question. Which is, I believe, what Scylla was getting at originally, along with promoting the pursuit of formulating and / or modifying one’s own opinions based on fact.

The sacrosanct nature of one’s opinion is a direct result of the First Amendment, as has been noted. Of course, I would say you have a right to your own opinion, but if you don’t know what you’re talking about, be sensible enough to keep it to yourself.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.