"I have a right to my own opinion"
When you put a view or opinion out there you make it everybody else's business
and have no right to tell them that they must not challenge it. Not everybody
who says they have a right to their opinion means you must not hand them a
challenge. But many do. This study is about them. The secret is to prepare them
by having them agree beforehand that opinions are only attempts to work out the
truth. Also, encourage people to ask questions instead of voicing their
opinions. Instead of, "I think President X is right to liberalise abortion" say,
"Do you think President X is right to liberalise abortion?" Opinions can enslave
but questions cannot. Truth mixed with lies is worse than a lie for it fools
easily. It is worse to abuse truth by mixing it with lies than to lie straight
out. The right to my opinion brigade use their alleged right to further
half-truths and lies.
Opinion is dangerous for it tempts people to settle for having an opinion
when they should not settle and look for more accurate opinions and try to find
the truth. Settling into opinion leads you to be passive aggressive towards
those who differ from you or who would challenge your opinion and sometimes you
will try to shout them down because you know you are standing on shifting sand.
Main Points
- People believe you have the privilege not the right to get the truth. That view is stupid. The truth is a right. While there is some truth you do not have a right to you have the right to enough truth to live a sensible life.
- People say they have a right to their opinion when you say or are about to
say something that may challenge that opinion. That is a ploy to shut you up and
to shut what is possibly the truth up.
-Opinions and beliefs should be deployed only in a search for the unvarnished
truth. Truth does not belong to you. The truth is not yours. It is truth whether
you like it or not. It is up to you to embrace truth and it is not up to truth
to embrace you.
-An opinion is a little better than a guess. Your opinion is a necessary evil -
it is something you have to endure until more light comes along. Opinions are
not ends in themselves but only signposts of a journey towards truth. An
opinion is very close to a guess or an assumption. By definition, it is not
enough to base trust on. You don't trust a stranger with your wallet even if
your opinion is that he will not steal from it.
- Opinions need to be implemented by sincere reason or thinking. To say that X
was cured of the flu because x sprayed musk on every day is to voice an opinion
that is devoid of logic. The person just wants to believe this for she knows
that you cannot say that growing a geranium caused World War 2. So the opinion
is really meaningless rubbish not an opinion. In fact the stronger the opinion
is held the worse it gets in terms of irrationality. Any respect given to it
will be fake. You cannot respect such incoherence no matter how hard you try. An
irrational idea gets more irrational not less when you try to support it with
evidence because evidence is being abused not used. If God gave you your
thinking cap he will not be honoured by anything irrational not even if it is
religious.
-Opinions and beliefs affect your actions because of how you see others and how
you see things. If you think your opinions should not be challenged then you are
acting like a spoilt brat. You only damage yourself and corrupt and insult
others with that kind of attitude. You also show that the opinion you hold to be
so sacred is not an honest opinion - you suspect it is rubbish and you don't
want its silliness unravelled.
- "I have a right to my opinion" is used to stop the opinion being examined or
tested meaning you do not want to HEAR what the other person has to say against
it. But what gives you the right to say you must not hear it for you expect
others to hear your opinions and your challenges? That is how you got your
opinions for heaven's sake! Nobody thinks that that though you have a right to
your opinion that others have a right not to hear it. If we thought that we
would always keep our opinions to ourselves.
- "I have a right to my opinion" when used to stop somebody trying give you the
chance to change your mind implies that you think all opinions are equally
valuable and useful so it does not matter what opinions anybody has. It is a nod
to the dire threat of relativism - relativism teaches that truth is whatever you
want it to be. Relativists are never consistent - nobody values the opinion that
child abuse is a sacrament of God. Nobody who treats one opinion as good as
another even if they are diametrically opposed really believes that one opinion
is as good as another. If you are not into challenging the opinion you certainly
do have to challenge the relativist attitude. The attitude is a bigoted
hypocritical poison that seeps into everything everywhere. Relativists are
saying to you, "Okay this is my view and I will not change it. Do not challenge
what I want to believe. I believe what I want." This only leads to people being
afraid to speak their minds or thinking there is no point. It would be a
dangerous thing if most people thought that others believe things not because
they seem credible but because they want to believe them.
- "I have a right to my opinion" masquerades as humility when it comes from a
person who regards all opinions as good or true as each other. This sounds cosy
and tolerant until you realise that it is saying that everybody is right no
matter how much they contradict one another! If you are right and are arrogant
about it that is not good but what is worse is being sure you are right when you
are simply wrong or your view is not as convincing as you imagine.
- "I have a right to my opinion" when used to stop somebody trying give you the
chance to change your mind is just totally insane when the opinion is
self-refuting. It challenges itself. It asserts and denies itself.
-If you have a right to your opinion, you do not have a right to your facts.
Imagine what would happen if people had the right to their facts. They would be
able to murder and still claim that merely because they want to be thought
innocent they are innocent. Facts matter and opinions only matter as a means of
trying to be open to the truth. It is really the facts that matter. You cannot
turn something into a fact merely by having the opinion that it is true. To say
you have a right to your opinion overlooks the fact that it is not about your
rights but the rights of the truth. If you have a right to your opinion it is
because you have a right to truth. In that light, it is never right to refuse to
have your opinion challenged or examined or corrected. You do not have the right
to try and silence the challenger.
- I have a right to my opinion is used selectively. It is usually used to
silence people whose religious or moral views you do not want to hear. And
political ones too - and we all suffer from the consequences of that! You never
hear of an accounts assistant who insists that her unprofessional and ridiculous
financial statement is correct and using, "I have a right to my opinion so I
will not correct it for it is right" as giving her the right to refuse to have
it fixed. "I have a right to my opinion" is used to enable moral religious lies
and errors. Even if the opinion is right the intention is to create unnecessary
risk of error and lies happening and growing in power. Using "I have a right to
my opinion" to silence people is active support and it calls on the person you
are talking to to stop challenging your opinion and thus passively support you
in your lack of respect for truth.
- "I have a right to my opinion" as a silencing tactic is too open to abuse. A
person can pretend something is their sacred opinion in order to further an
agenda. If you want to be judged sincere in your opinion, then don't say "I have
a right to my opinion" to silence people.
-Avoid opinions to the best of your ability. Have beliefs instead and ground
them as best you can in evidence and avoid contradictions. It is not right to
have opinions in important matters unless the evidence is not clear. An opinion
is a necessary evil. It is something you put up with until you get more light.
-An opinion that is stated is asking for dispute. It is open to dispute and
therefore requires it. Expressing an opinion is automatically asking for it to
be challenged if needed. That is why it is never acceptable or polite to say, "I
have a right to my opinion" in order to refuse to listen to a challenge - it is
declaring yourself dishonest. You are saying you want the other person to hear
your opinion but you don't want to hear their opinion that you are wrong. To say
you have a right to your opinion is saying that nobody has the right to ask you
to think more. That is arrogant and unfair.
-You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to what you can make a
good case for. To say you are entitled to your opinion means the person who
believes that murdering grannies for drugs is entitled to believe that. What you
should say is that you are entitled to your opinion only until you get more
light and evidence. If you are really entitled to your opinion then why are you
risking somebody else changing their opinion to yours when you discuss it?
Surely opinions should not be discussed at all if they are that sacred.
- If somebody states a fact that others do not like, they will try to undermine
her or him by claiming it is her or his opinion. It is unfair to accuse a person
who states a fact of stating an opinion. It is unfair to them and to the truth.
You may say that you have a right to the opinion that they are not stating facts
but opinions! That would be a harmful opinions. It is cruel and sneaky and
irresponsible to accuse anybody who claims to have a solid case for believing
something of merely having an opinion or opinions that try to silence others. It
is no better than gaslighting which tries to get between a person and their
attempts to attune to reality.
- The right to my own opinion brigade often accuse people who know facts of
merely having opinions and not facts. They are making a judgemental and arrogant
accusation. It is very insulting to tell a person who knows something that they
do not. It denies that serious belief in anything exists or that anybody knows
anything. Instead of serious believers you have people who say they are serious
believers but who are seriously attached to something. It is like they are
addicted to what they pretend they know or strongly believe.
- Opinions like beliefs have consequences for ourselves and others. Your
opinions will impact on your behaviour and values. Evil and unfair opinions lead
to evil.
-You are entitled to what you have earned. You do not earn opinions or beliefs.
They just happen. You are not entitled to your opinion but you are entitled not
to be harassed for holding the opinion. It is foolish to say nobody has the
right to stop you from thinking. Nobody can do that so rights do not come into
it.
-Ask a person why they think they are entitled to their opinion when they try to
silence you by saying "I have a right to my opinion". They are trying to silence
you so you have a right to know why you should forfeit your right of freedom of
expression.
-If they think they are entitled to it because it is no doubt right, then they
are guilty of arrogance. An opinion might be right but it is not right to treat
your opinions as fact and it is deceitful to promote them to others as facts.
They might be facts but the point is you don't know that.
-When you say something is your opinion you are asking for it to be debated for
you do not need to have an opinion. You can just suspend taking an opinion.
Having an opinion when you have the option of not having one is raising the
question of "Why?"
-If a person feels so strongly about their opinion that they ask you not to
debate it any more then it is more than just an opinion. Just tell them that.
And if you feel too strongly about your opinions and they are really opinions
then you must have emotional problems.
-I have a right to my opinion translates as, "My view is my business not yours.
Butt out. I don't care if I am wrong." In fact, you state your opinion and when
you put it out there that does make it other people's business and especially if
they value truth. Grow up.
- "I have a right to my opinion" when coupled with deliberate ignorance is
really claiming that because you have free will you have the right to believe
anything. But free will will give you the freedom and not necessarily the right.
It is evidence that directly determines belief not free will. Free will is
irrelevant as regards the right. There is no right, there is only the freedom at
best.
- You cannot silence anybody with "I have a right to my opinion" when your
opinion like everybody else's was formed through people and channels challenging
you to think. Opinions do not appear out of thin air. Thinking about anything
means being open to seeing it being challenged. You are not tolerant if you
impose silence on people with "I have a right to my opinion" - you claim you
have the right to the opinion that you should. But if that is true, why should
you be allowed to express your opinion and not the other person?
- "I have a right to my opinion" sounds like a nod to tolerance but in fact it
is not. When groups with opposing points of view say, "I have a right to my
opinion and that is that" the rancour only gets worse. Each side will accuse the
other of refusing to try to understand it properly. And at least one of the
groups is accused justly. Real tolerance highlights truth not what people want
to think. Using "I have a right to my opinion" is an attempt to force silence on
the views of others and force like that only feeds intolerance and anger.
- Religion does not encourage the practice of using "I have a right to my
opinion" to dodge a challenge or dodge getting corrected. But it does encourage
it when it comes to "sacred" truths. The theologian will use it to silence the
person who offers proof that Jesus was just another deluded prophet or that it
is cruel to excuse the inexcusable in saying that God is right to let all the
terrible things that happen happen. Countless examples could be given. They just
don't want to see anything that shows they are wrong. What they want to think
matters even if it means they lead others astray.
- Religion and superstition and supernatural claims and beliefs gives you
extra things to have opinions about. It would be simpler without such beliefs.
-People who use tactics to silence you such as, "I have a right to my opinion",
are taking advantage of the fact that forbidding certain opinions from being
articulated never changed anyone's opinions. They don't want to let you voice
your contrary opinion for they want to create the false impression that theirs
is "better" or "wiser" than it actually is. Even if it is better and wiser, that
is not what they care about. Don't enable their arrogance. Enabling it is
feeding it.
-Those who are afraid to challenge an opinion because the person claims a right
to it could challenge the person for trying to assert like that and make out
that his opinion is something sacrosanct and above your opinion that it should
be challenged. That way you are challenging not the opinion itself but the
person's arrogance towards you. It is a good way of paving the way for
challenging the opinion.
- If you call something your opinion in spite of it being obvious to you that it
must be wrong you are contradicting the facts and the evidence. It makes to
sense to call something an opinion which means it must be based on some sort of
evidence however weak and then to oppose the best evidence because it refutes
it. It makes no sense to have a contradictory opinion: "I believe Jesus loves
sinners but does not forgive their sins." If you contradict yourself you are
asking others to say to you, "You say X and then Y so which is it and why?" To
silence them with, "I have a right to my opinion" is just childish and unfair.
-Nobody can make you or force you to change your opinion. That only proves they
cannot do anything about it not that you have a right to your opinion. The
freedom to have an opinion does not add up to a right to have it. The right to
have it depends on whether you are open to truth or not. You only have a right
to an opinion if the opinion is in fact correct or if you are trying to be
correct and are willing to scrap the opinion should it be proven wrong.