Question of the day: are you entitled to an opinion?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Kind of, read ahead.
It seems to me as though people are very good at thinking they are right no matter what. "No shit man, that's how people work." Well it goes a bit deeper than that. Using me as an example, I tend to think I am correct a large percent of the time. Sometimes I'll even add what I think is a true fact when really I have no idea what I'm talking about. Why am I one of "those" people? That's a question for my psychiatrists if I ever had any. One tool people like that use to prove their right-eousness is the "we're all entitled to our opinion" scapegoat.
To start off, read this article: http://www.iflscience.com/brain/no-youre-not-entitled-your-opinion
That's basically the gist of this post, I may or may not (worth putting your money on the "not" in the situation) go more in depth or present something new to add to the argument. If you're not going to bother reading that article (which will save you time instead of reading this) then here's a short summary:
You are only entitled to spread whatever opinion you can back up with facts.
There, that's it. Short and simple.
"But..."
No.
"What about...?"
No.
The dawn of the age of the internet (almost sounded as awkward as "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes") has given a voice to EVERYBODY involved. The internet has no actual age restrictions of any kind which allows anyone to post whatever they want. That might be the most beautiful thing about us as human beings, putting everyone on what is somewhat level ground. That is only true if you don't count internet restrictions that certain governments have put into place (China, UK, Australia, etc.)
This completely erases any need for soapboxing of any kind. You don't have to hand out flyers, yell downtown, or even physically talk to people anymore in order to get your message out. A person that has no public speaking skills can still send their message out in the most effective way possible, as long as they know how to sound persuasive in one way or another. And so now, this gives people two chances to back away from any form of constructive conversation by saying "I'm entitled to my opinion."
If you've surfed Reddit, 4chan, Facebook, Twitter, and any social media outlet then you'd know how good people are at giving their opinions freely. Even right now, I am stating my opinion that stemmed from an article I read. The funniest part about all this is the fact that even though anyone that is able to "Google" something will still say "That's just my opinion" to back out of an argument although they have every single resource at their fingertips that they can use to back their opinion up with facts.
I'm not saying that every opinion stated is automatically void of evidence, no of course not. But more often than not I have encountered conversations that end in "something something my opinion" than in any other way. If you are not able to back up an opinion with something that is remotely true then what is the point of the discussion in the first place? In the end nothing is resolved and nothing is learned from the opinions shared, it just ends up becoming Buzzfeed.
Why I cited Buzzfeed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU1EiKys_Uk
Also, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lni1b3Lw1U&feature=youtu.be
So, moral of the story? Feel free to keep going and discussing things just as you were today because there's nothing wrong with that at all (if you consider right and wrong to be ambiguous and irrelevant). But if you'd like to take a look at a topic critically, then do not hesitate to question an opinion. Just because someone states something does not make it an iron-clad statement. Einstein wasn't even certain when he wrote E=mc2, in fact he expected it to be disproved moments after publishing his papers.
No, you are not entitled to your opinion. You are only entitled to say what you can back up. You are however in the right to state your opinion regardless, it's kind of weird to think about. My Philosophy Prof. told our class that critical thinking has no beginning or an end. It's a skill that you choose to develop and use throughout your life. By questioning the opinions of others you are further building this skill, easier said than done.
Cheers, MarkL
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Kind of, read ahead.
It seems to me as though people are very good at thinking they are right no matter what. "No shit man, that's how people work." Well it goes a bit deeper than that. Using me as an example, I tend to think I am correct a large percent of the time. Sometimes I'll even add what I think is a true fact when really I have no idea what I'm talking about. Why am I one of "those" people? That's a question for my psychiatrists if I ever had any. One tool people like that use to prove their right-eousness is the "we're all entitled to our opinion" scapegoat.
To start off, read this article: http://www.iflscience.com/brain/no-youre-not-entitled-your-opinion
That's basically the gist of this post, I may or may not (worth putting your money on the "not" in the situation) go more in depth or present something new to add to the argument. If you're not going to bother reading that article (which will save you time instead of reading this) then here's a short summary:
You are only entitled to spread whatever opinion you can back up with facts.
There, that's it. Short and simple.
"But..."
No.
"What about...?"
No.
The dawn of the age of the internet (almost sounded as awkward as "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes") has given a voice to EVERYBODY involved. The internet has no actual age restrictions of any kind which allows anyone to post whatever they want. That might be the most beautiful thing about us as human beings, putting everyone on what is somewhat level ground. That is only true if you don't count internet restrictions that certain governments have put into place (China, UK, Australia, etc.)
This completely erases any need for soapboxing of any kind. You don't have to hand out flyers, yell downtown, or even physically talk to people anymore in order to get your message out. A person that has no public speaking skills can still send their message out in the most effective way possible, as long as they know how to sound persuasive in one way or another. And so now, this gives people two chances to back away from any form of constructive conversation by saying "I'm entitled to my opinion."
If you've surfed Reddit, 4chan, Facebook, Twitter, and any social media outlet then you'd know how good people are at giving their opinions freely. Even right now, I am stating my opinion that stemmed from an article I read. The funniest part about all this is the fact that even though anyone that is able to "Google" something will still say "That's just my opinion" to back out of an argument although they have every single resource at their fingertips that they can use to back their opinion up with facts.
I'm not saying that every opinion stated is automatically void of evidence, no of course not. But more often than not I have encountered conversations that end in "something something my opinion" than in any other way. If you are not able to back up an opinion with something that is remotely true then what is the point of the discussion in the first place? In the end nothing is resolved and nothing is learned from the opinions shared, it just ends up becoming Buzzfeed.
Why I cited Buzzfeed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU1EiKys_Uk
Also, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lni1b3Lw1U&feature=youtu.be
So, moral of the story? Feel free to keep going and discussing things just as you were today because there's nothing wrong with that at all (if you consider right and wrong to be ambiguous and irrelevant). But if you'd like to take a look at a topic critically, then do not hesitate to question an opinion. Just because someone states something does not make it an iron-clad statement. Einstein wasn't even certain when he wrote E=mc2, in fact he expected it to be disproved moments after publishing his papers.
No, you are not entitled to your opinion. You are only entitled to say what you can back up. You are however in the right to state your opinion regardless, it's kind of weird to think about. My Philosophy Prof. told our class that critical thinking has no beginning or an end. It's a skill that you choose to develop and use throughout your life. By questioning the opinions of others you are further building this skill, easier said than done.
Cheers, MarkL
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