I am a very opinionated person. I have opinions about nearly any topic that can be discussed, even topics of which I have no personal interest or knowledge. Actually, the key there is probably the no personal interest. I find that it’s much more rewarding to provide opinions and suggestions on something which bores me.
Unfortunately, people who provide opinions on things about which they know not ,or about topics which disinterest them, tend to be disliked by people who either care about the topic or have in-depth knowledge about the subject. I often find myself on both sides of that fence (this is referred to as biopinionation, or the act of being biopinionated). Though more often, I find myself on the side of knowing the facts, and dealing with a person who feels they know the facts but when in reality, they do not.
In the not too distant past, I was having a conversation with an opinionated friend of mine. I had mentioned to him that I was in need of a follow-up doctor appointment to discuss the new migraine medication that I am taking. My opinionated friend casually mentioned that he didn’t believe migraines really existed, and that people threw the term around too much to describe normal headaches just because they wanted sympathy by telling people that it was a migraine.
Keep in mind, this opinionated friend has never actually had a migraine, and is not plagued by headaches as many unfortunate individuals are. I mentioned to this person that symptoms of a migraine are quite different than that of a normal headache, to which he responded “oh yeah? what are they?” I subsequently advised him that he could feel free to look up the details on migraines online, as there are numerous web pages devoted to the phenomena. He advised that he wasn’t interested enough to look it up. To which I realized that the conversation was pointless if the opinionated friend wasn’t even willing to look up the facts before speaking without authority.
This is the type of opinionated…CRAP…that I am simply unwilling to associate with. It is certainly one thing to talk about something which you have thoroughly researched, or at least, have experienced for yourself, but quite another thing to speak as though you have fact, but in reality have diarrhea of the mouth. (As you know, I’m fond of vivid imagery…whether pleasant or not.)
After ending the conversation with my opinionated friend, I realized that I needed to personally evaluate the concept of opinions. And by personal evaluation, I was required to share this information publicly as my opinion, as it were, and if you will. So, let’s talk about it.
As always, we start with a definition. This definition is not my opinion, it is fact.
Main Entry: opin·ion
Pronunciation: &-’pin-y&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin opinion-, opinio, from opinari
Date: 14th century
1 a : a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter b : APPROVAL, ESTEEM
2 a : belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge b : a generally held view
3 a : a formal expression of judgment or advice by an expert b : the formal expression of the legal reasons and principles upon which a legal decision is based
Basically what we have here, is a thought or expression that represents the way that the speaker feels about a subject. I believe that flower is very pretty. I think that dress is beautiful. I think his toupee has the same hue as pepto bismal. Each of these is an opinion, a statement which represents my personal feelings on various subjects.
In actuality, another person may look at the flower and be very displeased with no only the colour, but the number of petals, and may be of the opinion that it is ugly. Additionally, the dress may have been made from leftover draperies from an Austin Powers movie, and therefore others may find it to be quite distressing. Finally, the owner of the toupee may feel that having a large pink mass of hair on his head makes him stand out in a crowd. Again, each of these are opinions, diverging opinions, yes, but opinions none the less.
So now that we have level set on opinions, and the fact that two people can have differing opinions, with the possibility of neither having the facts, let us take a look at the many ways we let others know that we have opinions.
Americans, and quite possibly other nationalities (but I can’t speak for nationalities that I am neither affiliated with nor have a vested interest in representing), have a habit of prefacing many statements with phrases such as “in my opinion” or “just my 2 cents” or “I think…“, and other various forms of “hey, i’m getting ready to tell you what I think, which might be different than what you think, but i’m telling you that up-front, so that you won’t get offended and think that i’m trying to speak for you or contradict you but might just have a different thought than you do so just take it the way it was intended as my opinion and not me telling you what to do.”
Why do we need to preface 75% of our commentary with these types of “qualifiers”? Are we that concerned with all this political correctness, that if we do not qualify all of our comments as opinions, the listener is going to take offence at what we have said? In my opinion, it’s just stupid. If I have an opinion, I’m going to state it as emphatically as I possibly can, with no qualifiers, and just let the listener figure out whether I am speaking as fact or not. There is a lot of truth in the statement that if you speak with confidence, whether you have it or not, you will be heard and perceived as having confidence.
I think some of the dumbest people in the world today have the ability to speak and carry themselves with confidence. We, the unknowing and blindly trusting public, see this confidence as fact, and thus believe anything that these people have to say. On the contrary, there are many people in the world who are very intelligent and really do know the facts, but have no ability to present those facts in a coherent manner. We do not vote for those people. We do not hold those people in the high regard. Instead, we vote for the one who can tell us what we want to hear, even though it’s just their stupid opinion.
I’m sorry, but that’s just dumb. Aside from the fact that the world is overpopulated with the wrong kind of people (snaps to Ellen) and our leaders try to turn their own personal opinions into the facts of a nation, we really do have a problem expressing opinions with confidence. Why don’t we just state what we think without the qualifiers all of the time?
Why can’t you just walk up to someone and say “You aren’t very good at what you do. That shirt looks ugly on you, and you smell.” See? I was able to state three opinions right there, without any qualifiers.
Let’s see what that would look like in normal American speech. “Hey dude, just my two cents, but you may want to look for another job, because in my opinion, you really aren’t going to get where you want to go doing what you are doing today. Oh and dude, I overheard someone talking about that shirt. Not that it’s any of my business but it might be a little offensive to some people, especially in the workplace. And dude, don’t get me wrong, but did you go fishing this morning before work, because…dang!“
As you can see, the whole qualifier thing is just really inefficient use of language. Being a proponent of using language to the fullest extent does not mean that one should abuse the language or inject unnecessary redundancy and fluff to make a statement clear. In my opinion, we need to get over the fact that we all have different opinions, and just realize that this is a fact of life. Whenever you say something, everyone around you KNOWS that it’s an opinion, because that’s really all anyone has anymore. We don’t speak with facts. We speak with hearsay, 3rd party relay, and subjective opinions about something we have seen or heard.
I.e. News anchors don’t speak with fact. They provide their opinion based on something that they saw on the video tape footage of an event. Unless they were actually there and experiencing it, they are simply relaying to you their opinion of the matter. They have mastered this art, however, and rarely if ever use a phrase such as “in my opinion, it’s going to be 85F today with a 30% chance of rain” or “just my 2 cents, but if that motorcyclist had been on the right side of the road, he wouldn’t have been hit by that 18-wheeler that crossed the median“.
I beg and plead with you, whether you are an opinionated know it all, or a factual brainiac who researches everything before speaking about it, state your opinion, just the opinion. Leave off those qualifiers that redundantly tell me that what you are going to tell me is just something you thought of 5 seconds before you said it. Because trust me, I will know that you are just blowing smoke out of your butt, but that’s just my 2 cents.
DISCLAIMER
The ideas expressed in this editorial are my own personal thoughts and beliefs. You can feel free to ignore them, or take them to heart, but that’s just my opinion.