I’m always a little torn on this. Generally, I absolutely agree, and I admire people who say “I don’t think I know the full story so I’m not sure”. And I try to preface my own uninformed opinions with said uninformedness. But there’s two ways to misinterpret this.
There’s people who think only “experts” should have opinions and nobody else is allowed to have one, a dangerously elitist view. Don’t get me wrong, we shoukd absolutely listen to the “experts”, but we should still form opinions. This view can be used to silence other opinions, especially from those who have lesser access to education.
The other perversion of this is that it can be used as an excuse not to care. Especially in Germany I’ve heard this as an excuse, after October 7th many people claimed it was wrong to even have an opinion on Israel/Palestine since you would have to have lived there to really understand, since it was all so complex and difficult. Anybody who had a clear opinion on it wclearly had no idea. However this rhetoric just enables the status quo (i.e. giving weapons to Israel), and prevents meaningful exchange of ideas.
It’s simple: you are allowed to have opinions on things you are not very well informed about. Even if it’s wrong. What matters is being open to changing your opinion when presented with information you did not have.
Also the OP stance is specially ridiculous when applied to things that fall under the social “sciences”, since so much of it is just actual opinions that get passed of as facts through the power of citing other opinions.
I agree with this. Along with being open to changing your opinion is understanding that in topics you aren’t an expert in, you don’t even know how much you don’t understand.
I’m always a little torn on this. Generally, I absolutely agree, and I admire people who say “I don’t think I know the full story so I’m not sure”. And I try to preface my own uninformed opinions with said uninformedness. But there’s two ways to misinterpret this.
There’s people who think only “experts” should have opinions and nobody else is allowed to have one, a dangerously elitist view. Don’t get me wrong, we shoukd absolutely listen to the “experts”, but we should still form opinions. This view can be used to silence other opinions, especially from those who have lesser access to education.
The other perversion of this is that it can be used as an excuse not to care. Especially in Germany I’ve heard this as an excuse, after October 7th many people claimed it was wrong to even have an opinion on Israel/Palestine since you would have to have lived there to really understand, since it was all so complex and difficult. Anybody who had a clear opinion on it wclearly had no idea. However this rhetoric just enables the status quo (i.e. giving weapons to Israel), and prevents meaningful exchange of ideas.
It’s simple: you are allowed to have opinions on things you are not very well informed about. Even if it’s wrong. What matters is being open to changing your opinion when presented with information you did not have.
Also the OP stance is specially ridiculous when applied to things that fall under the social “sciences”, since so much of it is just actual opinions that get passed of as facts through the power of citing other opinions.
This is the way
I agree with this. Along with being open to changing your opinion is understanding that in topics you aren’t an expert in, you don’t even know how much you don’t understand.