What if you didnt have a right to your opinion?
“Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”
~John F. Kennedy"
Would you believe me if I said you didn’t have a right to your opinion? If you’re like most people, you’re convinced you’re entitled to your opinion. And that your opinion, whatever it may be, has just as much truth as any opposing one. Never mind evidence and facts, who needs those? After all, you’re just expressing your opinion. I’ll bet you even demand respect for your opinions, no matter how groundless they may be. Well, It’s this articles duty to show you don’t’ have a “right” to your opinion.
It’s a common mistake for people to think they have this right. If you’re in that group, you couldn’t be further from the truth. Hearing someone utter you don’t have a right to your opinion sounds blatantly false; but it’s not. Let me illustrate:
Hansel: “Have you seen the movie Sicko?” “It’s great! Michael Moore is really helping the American people.”
Gretel: “Yeah I’ve seen it, and I don’t think it’s a good documentary at all. Michael Moore is hurting the people by blasting his dogmatic views as truth. If he wanted to help he should’ve at least offered a few valid arguments from the other side.
Hansel: I don’t know what you mean? In my opinion, he’s doing great things!
Gretel: You don’t know what I mean? The guy never showed an alternative standpoint! Not to mention shamelessly plugging how generous he is by helping one of his critics pay his medical bills!
Hansel: “Well, it doesn’t matter; I’m entitled to my opinion.
That’s a simplified script of how these discussions usually go. Evoking ones rights ends the conversation unresolved. Here’s the problem: Hansel changes the debate from Michael Moore being good for the people, to nonrelated discussion about his rights. This is a red herring and has nothing to do with the original discussion. Usually people who are guilty of this fallacy use it as if it’s a refutation to the opposing standpoint; but it isn’t. It’s fallacious and adds nothing to the discussion. It neither settles the dispute nor shows the opinion in question to be true. It never shows who’s right or advances the stasis.
If Hansel does, in fact, have a right to claim his view as truth, Gretel does too. Since the law of contradiction doesn’t allow both standpoints to be true, it leads to a direct violation of one of their rights.
This so called right is violated all the time. In order to prevent their “right” from being violated, we would need to go back and settle the original dispute; Hansel and Gretel need to discover who has the truth.
When someone digresses to a discussion about their rights, they’ve tried to lead us to an entirely different discussion. Gretel never said Hansel didn’t have this right. Hansel might as well have brought up the price of rice in China.
When people say “I’m entitled to my opinion”, it’s often because they are unable to defend their standpoint and want to retire to their familiar, delusional lives. And for less serious matters, by all means; let them.
Many people hold their mistaken beliefs because it’s familiar or brings comfort. But that, of course, doesn’t make them right.
We’re only entitled to our opinions if we have evidence for those beliefs. Strong arguments must support a belief along with the inferences supported by proper warrants. If you are going to have a discussion, you should be willing to change your mind in the presence of irrefutable evidence, or at least be willing to question your own beliefs.
You shouldn’t lock up and run when someone doesn’t hold your view. For example, I know books like the bible teach Christians to flee from heathens, but if you run from people who have different views; how you do think critically and get to the truth? Why would you accept that rhetorical poison? It’s only there to keep you from thinking. It’s kind of like having a good old fashioned book burning. Do you flee because you have faith in “the word”? If that’s the case, I must mention; faith is when someone else does the thinking. But if you prefer living by the saying “ignorance is bliss” I’m sure you don’t mind others doing the thinking for you.
When someone says they have a right to X, we should immediately ask, what does this claimed right impose on others. Having a “right” to continue living means everyone else has a duty not to murder you. But does the right also mean society has the duty of feeding you and putting a roof over your head? Asking ourselves what duties the right imposes on others helps us decide if such a right is possible. Do I have a duty to listen to your mistaken opinion? Do I have a duty to let you keep it? No. If someone were to hold the belief that driving home drunk will be ok since they've been driving for years is mistaken, and it's my duty to change his or her opinion.
Having a right to our own opinion creates duties. And if our opinions contradict, how can we possibly fulfill our duty to each other?
Political correctness in the U.S. demands that everyone respects your opinions, and it’s looked down on to disagree with people. Even if you disagree you’re usually expected to stay silent and avoid arguing. Being a thinking person requires repudiation to what isn’t knowable and reliable. Not accepting for fact, what people say at prima facie and being cautious of nonsynthetic personal experience; which is usually unreliable. People have many personal claims, and most I come across are not verifiable.
I imagine many Americans haven’t given serious thought to critical thinking. And I base that on what I hear in the personal and public spheres. These people haven’t come across the liberal arts or they refuse to study them.
People go through life thinking their views are sacred. In America people would have you run a fool’s errand before hurting someones feelings. I think the lack of thinking (among others) ties into being taught what to think and not how to think.
In the schools I attended, they didn’t bother to teach logic, reason, critical thinking, rhetoric or argumentation. Many Americans are forced to discover the liberal arts on their own with no help from the education system.
I’m not sure why that is, but it might suggest a cause for many of the problems we face in America. How can our republic work without the people having these skills? It’s obvious to me why our founders created a republic rather than a true democracy.
The problem with a democracy is that the majority can seemingly be convinced of anything an adept rhetoritician puts forward. Is it our governments fault? Well, regardless if it is or isn’t; the stigma stands.
Studying logic and reason will help us achieve a better life and improve our decision making ability. It will prevent us and our family from being taken advantage of and being deceived by con artists. Using logic and reason will make us better thinkers. We’ll see right through charlatans and their arguments and harmful rhetoric. We’ll no longer do the blind Kool-Aid taste tests but instead ask; “Should I *really* just shut up and drink my Kool-Aid or should I go ahead and try some on the cat first.
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“He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.~Andrew Carnegie"
“Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in.” ~Alan Alda"
“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudice, and motivated by pride and vanity”"
“Logic hasn't wholly dispelled the society of witches and prophets and sorcerers and soothsayers. ~Raymond F. Jones, The Non-Statistical Man"
“He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.~Andrew Carnegie"
“He is a true fugitive who flies from reason. ~Marcus Aurelius"
“A wise man is not governed by others, nor does he try to govern them; he prefers that reason alone prevail. ~La Bruyère, Characters, 1688"
“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking. ~Voltaire"
“Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting. ~Edmund Burke"
“You and I are not what we eat; we are what we think. ~Walter Anderson, The Confidence Course, 1997"
“Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again? ~Winnie the Pooh"
“Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. ~John F. Kennedy"
“Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in. ~Alan Alda"
“Thinking is like loving and dying. Each of us must do it for himself. ~Josiah Royce"
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Originally Posted by Exarch
