# Post your unpopular opinions **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 6, 2018, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001 "2018-01-06T22:19:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/101 "2018-01-08T19:09:11Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > **Global warming is a GOOD THING** … > > Tropical climate from pole to pole … no permanent ice anywhere except the highest mountain peaks … luxurious plant growth everyplace … we’re at the dawn of a new Golden Age of human achievement … all will prosper, the hungry will be fed, the homeless will be housed and the naked will be clothed all over the world … Siberia, North Canada and Antarctica all become eminently habitable for all the diversity of life … the deserts will because immense grasslands supporting trillions of wild critters … hate and war disappear … > > Humans are returning to the Garden of Eden … OP was looking for unpopular opinions, not uninformed opinions. ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/102 "2018-01-08T20:27:21Z")
I am an American. I hate watching Basketball. I think it is the most boring sport in the world. I think the unions ruined Baseball since nobody builds a team anymore they just shop around each year for whatever they can get. I love watching curling and cricket. I would much rather watch Division II or III football than Division I or NFL. ---
**Author:** ![Profound\_Gibberish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Profound\_Gibberish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profound_Gibberish)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/103 "2018-01-08T20:31:49Z")
Suicide is perfectly justified if emotional traumas or medical illness are too much to handle. The US brought on the 9/11 attacks through decades of economic and political control over the mid-east and generally bombing the crap out of anyone that impeded that. There was truly no other way to strike at the US in any meaningful way. One person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. The question is what are they fighting for. To free an enslaved people or to enslave those people? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/104 "2018-01-08T21:17:32Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > **Global warming is a GOOD THING** … > > Tropical climate from pole to pole … no permanent ice anywhere except the highest mountain peaks … luxurious plant growth everyplace … we’re at the dawn of a new Golden Age of human achievement … all will prosper, the hungry will be fed, the homeless will be housed and the naked will be clothed all over the world … Siberia, North Canada and Antarctica all become eminently habitable for all the diversity of life … the deserts will because immense grasslands supporting trillions of wild critters … hate and war disappear … > > Humans are returning to the Garden of Eden … Climate change will alter climates all over the world. Some places get warmer, some get colder. One good argument I’ve heard for why conservatives should take climate change seriously is that the middle east could become uninhabitable due to higher temps. That means all the people there have to move to other countries around the world. Do you want Saudi Arabian climate refugees moving to your country and bringing their culture with them? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/105 "2018-01-08T21:58:46Z")
All theists are wrong - there is no god and there is no afterlife. Pineapple on pizza is awesome. Sherlock (the British series with Benedict Cumberbatch) is irredeemable garbage with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. (Allowances made if you only like it because you think the actors look sexy). ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/106 "2018-01-08T22:08:00Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I can think of another unpopular opinion you hold. It involves punctuation. That’s more popular than you may think … > [@Riemann](#): > > OP was looking for unpopular opinions, not uninformed opinions. Open a thread in **Great Debates** … I’m interested in how you support these outrageous claims that float around … wind drives the ocean surface currents, not the other way around … I honestly want to know why you think this is uninformed … ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/107 "2018-01-08T22:22:45Z")
Whenever I hear about someone dying from an opiate overdose (especially heroin), I’m divided between “their friends and family will miss them” and “their former friends and estranged family are probably glad they don’t have to deal with any more of their crap.” I also believe that there are people, especially teenagers, who are seeking out opiates because the media has made addiction look glamorous and cool. On a related note, if I never see another interview with an attractive young white person who says, “I became addicted to opiates because my oral surgeon prescribed them, blah blah blah, but now I’m clean and my life is so wonderful now” and then we find out after they die from an overdose that they got high in the bathroom before the interview, it will be too soon. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/108 "2018-01-08T23:28:15Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Whenever I hear about someone dying from an opiate overdose (especially heroin), I’m divided between “their friends and family will miss them” and “their former friends and estranged family are probably glad they don’t have to deal with any more of their crap.” I also believe that there are people, especially teenagers, who are seeking out opiates because the media has made addiction look glamorous and cool. Don’t know how I feel about this as a blanket statement, but my uncle died of a heroin overdose when he was 30. We were devastated, sure (particularly his mother and his two young children) but he was always a dick. He was five years older than me, so kind of like a big brother. A big, jerk-face brother. People in our family want to pretend that isn’t the case because you shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but he was a manipulative, flaming asshole for most of his life. I wish he wasn’t dead. I wish he’d gotten the help he needed. But the dude was not a good person. The retroactive delusion I’ve seen in our family really irks me, particularly my mother, who fucking hated him with all her guts but now uses him as a talking point for how tragic her life is. While we’re on the subject, ‘‘Don’t speak ill of the dead’’ is a stupid rule. Your life is the legacy you leave after death, you better fucking get it right if you want people to say good things about you when you die. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/109 "2018-01-09T00:53:15Z")
I think the designated hitter and the three point shot should be abolished. And football completely, but no hurry, it will self-destruct. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/110 "2018-01-09T00:57:43Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Climate change will alter climates all over the world. Some places get warmer, some get colder. > > One good argument I’ve heard for why conservatives should take climate change seriously is that the middle east could become uninhabitable due to higher temps. That means all the people there have to move to other countries around the world. Do you want Saudi Arabian climate refugees moving to your country and bringing their culture with them? It won’t change suddenly enough to force significant numbers of people already alive to suddenly move. It will just militate against the birth rate within the region of inhospitability. ---
**Author:** ![AI\_Proofreader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@AI\_Proofreader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AI_Proofreader)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/111 "2018-01-09T03:47:02Z")
> [@Profound\_Gibberish](#): > > The US brought on the 9/11 attacks through decades of economic and political control over the mid-east and generally bombing the crap out of anyone that impeded that. There was truly no other way to strike at the US in any meaningful way. I’ll see your unpopular opinion and raise you another: Al-Qaeda won. It was never their intention to try to kill us, or somehow take us over and impose Sharia law as some simple-minded people seem to believe. They were following the traditional model of guerrilla warfare (which we taught them, by the way, when we armed and trained Bin Laden and the precursor of Al-Qaeda, the Muhajideen, to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.) Against a vastly superior enemy that you cannot possibly defeat in a direct military confrontation, the goal is to harass the enemy and goad them into attacking you. Offense is always vastly more expensive than defense. You want to make war so costly, and last so long, that eventually the occupiers either can no longer afford the cost in money and lives of ruling your country, or they lack the will to continue to do so. They’ve won on both those counts; the U.S. has pissed away trillions over a conflict that shows no signs of stopping any earlier than a generation from when it began. Our will to continue isn’t there; the only reason we are continuing the “War on Terror” is that the oldest generation is still the one in power, and [the 82% of everyone else who no longer wants to be in Afghanistan](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/12/30/cnn-poll-afghanistan-war-most-unpopular-in-u-s-history/) and elsewhere haven’t been able to convince them to stop. When the old assholes in Congress die out and younger politicians replace them, eventually we’ll pull back, minus $10 trillion or more, with greatly reduced global influence and good will, demoralized, and with nothing to show for it but a million dead civilians and tens of thousands of dead U.S. soldiers. And all it cost them was a little money for flight lessons, 19 soldiers, and a few AK-47s to take potshots at soldiers to keep the conflict going. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/112 "2018-01-09T12:48:07Z")
Here’s one that may ruffle some feathers: Vietnam protesters did more good for the nation than Vietnam veterans. In today’s patriotic correctness (ooooh golly golly golly \*the troops \*), certainly not a popular position. But here’s my reasoning: The war was a colossal waste of lives and money. It didn’t make any difference to most of the world which Vietnamese side prevailed. As it turned out, the victory by the North seems in retrospect to have little practical consequence. Vietnam is doing fairly well economically though its government is repressive and corruption is rampant. Would it really have been that different had the South prevailed? So we had this waste of a war going on and on and enough young people said “Enough!” and eventually the political will to continue collapsed. The troops went home and the bloodbath stopped. From my perspective, that’s a good thing and it was initially brought on by protest. Compare that to those that went to serve and potentially die- their sacrifice and heroism was in vain. Sure, those that went can say truthfully that they served their country with honor, that’s all well and good. I’m not sure what I would have done had I been drafted, fortunately I didn’t have to choose between obeying the law and obeying my conscience. Perhaps I would have served, perhaps I would have died. Had I done so, it would have been for naught. Yes, the Vietnam vets have a beef with how they were treated on their return but from my perspective, what the protesters did was a greater good in that they shut down the war machine. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/113 "2018-01-09T13:51:04Z")
> [@](#): > > The troops went home and the bloodbath stopped. It depends on what you mean by “stopped”. > [@](#): > > After a visit to a new economic area for former Saigon near Phan-Thiet, Lacouture wrote that it was “a prefabricated hell and a place one comes to only if the alternative to it would be death.” > > Camps for former officers and functionaries of the Saigon government are usually located in malaria infested jungle areas. Thousands of camp inmates have died from lack of food, medicine, or clothing. Thousands have committed suicide some have been secretly liquidated, others perish through staged “accidents”: For example, former officers are forced to de-activate minefields with their bare hands, so the regime will not have to waste valuable bullets on them… > A convoy of 150 former Saigon officers was massacred en route to a re-education camp, except one who feigned death. Four U.S. trucks driven by ARVN [North Vietnamese Army] drivers; all the officers were blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs. The trucks were preceded by an armored car and a tank and followed by the same. Suddenly, in the ink dark of the of the countryside night, the leading tank and armored car sped up and the following tank and armored car opened fire on the convoy. The wounded were dispatched in place. > > All the prisoners were killed, except one who was saved by the local populace. And it was he who reported the massacre. [Cite](https://jim.com/ChomskyLiesCites/When_we_knew_what_happened_in_Vietnam.htm). > [@](#): > > After the Saigon evacuation, the numbers of Vietnamese leaving their country remained relatively small until mid-1978. A number of factors contributed to the refugee crisis, including economic hardship and wars between Vietnam, China, and Cambodia. In addition, up to 300,000 people, especially those associated with the former government of South Vietnam, were sent to re-education camps, where many endured torture, starvation, and disease while being forced to perform hard labor. [Cite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_boat_people). Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/114 "2018-01-09T14:08:36Z")
> [@AI\_Proofreader](#): > > I’ll see your unpopular opinion and raise you another: > > Al-Qaeda won… I don’t think that’s a terribly unpopular opinion, certainly not amongst security analysts. Al Qaeda won the minute Bush started talking about invading Iraq. It’s why Richard Clarke was screaming to anyone who would listen that this was a mistake, it’s why George H.W. Bush had his proxies writing op-eds to contradict his own son on Iraq. While Al Qaeda itself is no longer the organization it once was, it’s overall goal of destabilizing the Middle East and establishing radical Islamic states is certainly farther along than before 9-11. Had we responded in a more thoughtful way, not only would ISIS not have been born, but the US might not be hopelessly divided. Here’s my unpopular opinion for the day: any nation that elects Donald Trump deserves to die. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/115 "2018-01-09T14:19:23Z")
My opinions on Dylan: He is a great poet. His poetry would have been recognized in any age. OTOH, he is lucky he came to prominence in the early 1960’s folk movement. No other group of people would have let him near an on-stage microphone. ---
**Author:** ![Profound\_Gibberish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Profound\_Gibberish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profound_Gibberish)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/116 "2018-01-09T15:16:14Z")
Yep Yep and Yep Death by a thousand cuts. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/117 "2018-01-09T15:35:06Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > It won’t change suddenly enough to force significant numbers of people already alive to suddenly move. It will just militate against the birth rate within the region of inhospitability. There are currently over 20 million refugees today from just warfare according to the UN [“‘Unprecedented’ 65 million people displaced by war and persecution in 2015 – UN”](http://refugeesmigrants.un.org/%E2%80%98unprecedented%E2%80%99-65-million-people-displaced-war-and-persecution-2015-%E2%80%93-un) – June 20th, 2016 … all of written history includes warfare, can’t reasonable pin this to the burning of fossil fuels _en masse_ … > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > My opinions on Dylan: He is a great poet. His poetry would have been recognized in any age. > > OTOH, he is lucky he came to prominence in the early 1960’s folk movement. No other group of people would have let him near an on-stage microphone. This is actually a common opinion … I generally don’t diss Nobel Prize laureates, but I’ve never known anyone who said Bob Dylan could sing … ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/118 "2018-01-09T16:14:24Z")
Giving the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises to JJ Abrams was a huge mistake. Both The Force Awakens and the Star Trek reboots are bad films and an insult to fans of those franchises. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/119 "2018-01-09T16:37:14Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > That’s more popular than you may think … > > Open a thread in **Great Debates** … I’m interested in how you support these outrageous claims that float around … wind drives the ocean surface currents, not the other way around … I honestly want to know why you think this is uninformed … Wind drives surface currents, but there are other things that drive currents below the surface: [What causes ocean currents?: Ocean Exploration Facts: NOAA Ocean Exploration](http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/currents.html) Since water gets exchanged between deeper currents and surface currents, the wind, alone, isn’t what determines where water goes or how much heat that water brings with it. BTW–Uneven heating of the Earth’s surface is part of what maintains global wind circulation patterns. As the distribution of heat across the Earth changes, those wind patterns might change, too. Those changes, in turn, could alter global patterns of rainfall and surface ocean currents, which might increase changes in heat distribution. Global climate change could act like a chain reaction, messing up climates worldwide. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001/120 "2018-01-09T16:50:53Z")
Here’s a link that explains how global wind circulation works: [https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/rose-center-for-earth-and-space/david-s.-and-ruth-l.-gottesman-hall-of-planet-earth/what-causes-climate-and-climate-change/the-atmosphere/how-do-the-winds-circulate](https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/rose-center-for-earth-and-space/david-s.-and-ruth-l.-gottesman-hall-of-planet-earth/what-causes-climate-and-climate-change/the-atmosphere/how-do-the-winds-circulate) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-unpopular-opinions/806001.md?page=7)