It doesn’t matter what you think.
It isn’t that no one cares what you think, they probably don’t, it is that what you think doesn’t really matter. Chances are that what you think, you didn’t; didn’t think that is. Even if you did, it doesn’t matter because facts are facts, and facts don’t care. Facts just are. Feel free to think, to opine, about the unknown, to believe what you want, but facts are reality and can be known. Facts couldn’t care less what you learned at mother’s, or anyone else’s, knee; what you learned in school; what you heard on Fox News, … . Facts are facts.
Opinions are not the same as facts. Opinions, in fact, have nothing to do with the facts. Opinions are just something, like a preference, that each of us is entitled to. This may help explain our fondness for our own opinions. Opinions, at best, are only worth the thought put into them. Opinions based on opinions, and/or preconceived notions, are worthless, or even less. Opinions based on knowledge and best thinking are known as considered opinions, Their worth is determined by the quality of the information/knowledge considered, and by the quality of the thinking of whoever is doing the thinking.
Believe is something one chooses to do for whatever reason. If they have good reason to believe something it probably means that they have thought about it and came to a conclusion, If they just believe something, it probably doesn’t mean anything.
If one must think, when to do so is of utmost importance. Always think before acting; because it may be too late after. In other words, don’t fall into that old learn from experience trap. The first law of survival is survive. If one doesn’t survive, they can’t learn anything. Even if one does survive, thinking does not a good band-aid make. Neither the FBI, nor the Judge, will accept post-factum thinking as an excuse.
This advice to the insurrectionists comes too late!!!
Yup, that story is what set me to thinking. Chuckle just thinking about it.
Agreed. Opinions are worth something though. Rub two opposing opinions together hard enough and it will start a fire.
Also, the opinions of a zealot cannot be separated from their priors, but in the attempt one may heighten that zealot’s innate feelings of self-righteousness. Pursuing an argument that can do no good may do more harm than good, not because their is much harm to it, but because one has already admitted that there is NO good to it, hence more harm than good.
Opinions are like nose hairs: everybody’s got ’em.Facts and evidence are more scarce and accordingly more prized.
Ken,
IMO, the 1/6/21 US Capital incursion could not have gone any better. Sure the loss of life was unfortunate, but I believe necessary to out the haters for what they are. The fence sitters had to ;pick a side after that. It was just a drop in the bucket compared to the overall cost in lives just in the US from the white supremacist activities since the beginning of slavery. We really need to put the tragedy of slavery and its inheritance behind us and there is still a long ways to go.
How things turn out in the long run is yet to be decided. We need to get more stuff correct and less stuff wrong in public administration. The Biden administration is a start and not an end.
Preaching to the thoughtful choir is not likely to have much effect on a nation with 74 million magats. In any case, accurate internal representation of the world is not the evolutionary utility function of the brain. The utility function of the brain, like the utility function of every other aspect of the phenotype, is maximization of genetic representation in subsequent generations. To be sure, that often entails accurate internal representation of the world; but in many cases, particularly in social situations, it does not. You don’t need to read papers about the Robber’s Cave experiment to realize that tribalism Trumps reason; just look around.
Hi Ken,
Opinions kept to oneself, or shared amongst friends are one thing.
Opinions expressed through the media megaphone are another thing entirely.
I cannot think of any country that has succeeded with a divided media – one saying the ball is green, the other saying it is red. Unfortunately, too many powerful people are quite happy with facts being dead – it gives them so much freedom!
I disagree with your statement that “Believ[ing] is something one chooses to do”. There is no choice involved. To demonstrate, pick something you believe. Now choose to believe the exact opposite. You can’t do it.
Opinions do matter. A lot.
People vote based upon their opinions.
And, some elections are won by a tiny number of votes.
People don’t wear masks based upon their opinions and attend events and infect others and some of those others die prematurely.
I always cite Philip K. DIck a science fiction writer noted for his hallucinatory stories:
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”
P.S. Re: “Facts could care less” versus “facts don’t care”. So, do facts care, though they could care less, or don’t they care?
Thanks.
BKsea, Your conception of ‘choice’, in this case, is too literal. From all the fluidly mutating tribes that surround us in modern society, we choose one or more, based on conscious and unconscious influences from our personal histories immersed in society. Beliefs then flow directly from those choices, via confirmation bias and various semi-rational heuristics. For example, your belief about the validity of a referees call depends on which team you have chosen to root for.
Thank you for sharing your opinion(s), all of you.
I wouldn’t get too smug about being one of those in the “thoughtful choir.”
[especially if you believe in things like “the utility function of the brain.”]
But that’s just my opinion.