Can opinions be better or worse?

[Hawkeye10]

So...Magic... That's it? That's what you got? Your argument is that your feelings are better than everybody else's because of...magic?

Call it magic if you want I dont care.... it is about being right.....it is about seeing what is there before others and it is learning why it is there before others and it is foretelling the future more correctly than others....this is all about performance.. this is about tracking the truth correctly and understanding more of its layers than other can manage.....who can do it...who cant.

Those who can see the others that can.

 

[MrWonka]

Call it magic if you want I dont care.... it is about being right.....it is about seeing what is there before others and it is learning why it is there before others and it is foretelling the future more correctly than others...

Wow... that's amazing. You should probably go to bed and ask yourself why Trump was so wrong when he thought Pelosi would cave and give him wall funds.

 

[MrWonka]

Weird can you quote where i mentioned my gut?

Call it what you want. You rejected a rational argument straight up without being able to offer a rational reason.

after that can you quote where i said no opinions can be wrong?

Clearly, you don't think it's fair to judge people based on their opinions. According to you, that would be bigotry.

 

[AGENT J]

Call it what you want. You rejected a rational argument straight up without being able to offer a rational reason.
Clearly, you don't think it's fair to judge people based on their opinions. According to you, that would be bigotry.

translation you cant quote me saying the retarded lies you made up LMAO
and to make it worse you floor it up with additional lies strawmen and things you cant support. Owning your posts is so easy. :lamo

Let us know when you can quote me saying the lies you got caught making up, thanks!

 

[tecoyah]

Can someone's opinion be more valuable, useful, reasonable, and therefore better than another person's?

If not why do we bother arguing over them?

If so do we really need to respect everyone's opinions when some are clearly bad?

What criteria could be used as the basis for rating someone's opinion as better or worse?

Are there different classifications of opinions where some might be closer to right and wrong whereas others are totally up to preference?

Is the opinion of your auto mechanic more useful than your oncologist concerning your wifes breast cancer?

 

[bongsaway]

Opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one and most of them stink. An opinion is an opinion, it's not a fact, it's an opinion.

 

[Rogue Valley]

I find educated opinions and opinions from practical experience to be more valuable than those from the uninformed and the clueless.

When the stakes get higher, the opinions of the professionals are more valuable and valued.

 

[AlbqOwl]

Can someone's opinion be more valuable, useful, reasonable, and therefore better than another person's?

If not why do we bother arguing over them?

If so do we really need to respect everyone's opinions when some are clearly bad?

What criteria could be used as the basis for rating someone's opinion as better or worse?

Are there different classifications of opinions where some might be closer to right and wrong whereas others are totally up to preference?

Deliberately and intentionally punishing somebody for his/her opinion is unAmerican and unconstitutional and in my opinion completely wrong, sometimes evil. But of course we should argue--I prefer the word debate--opinions in the interest of understanding the merits and drawbacks of them before acting on them to become law. Two people can hold entirely different opinions about something and both be right in some aspects and/or wrong in some aspects. But if they focus on the issue and not on attacking each other, they can arrive at the best conclusion and action to be taken.

 

[Phys251]

God Days, and the solar, geological and biological development is pretty damn good for 3000 years ago. Scholars wrote it. Fish before land animals, birds before mammals. Light before atmosphere. Moon before tides. It's like 80% correct in how things developed. It's a macro look at Earth development from ancient scholars.

One interesting mistake. It has birds coming from fish. An excusable misconception, scales -> feathers.

You can put your faith in an origin mythology that's less than a page long, or you can put it in a rigorous scientific theory that has stood the test of time.

 

[ecofarm]

You can put your faith in an origin mythology that's less than a page long, or you can put it in a rigorous scientific theory that has stood the test of time.

Well I have an MSc and PhD(c) and I've never believed anything supernatural in my life, but I can still appreciate ancient means of inter generational communication. I'm not so bent about the whole thing that I cannot appreciate what is arguably the greatest book ever written.

 

[Phys251]

Well I have an MSc and PhD(c) and I've never believed anything supernatural in my life, but I can still appreciate ancient means of inter generational communication. I'm not so bent about the whole thing that I cannot appreciate what is arguably the greatest book ever written.

Well that was an abrupt shift.

 

[ecofarm]

Well that was an abrupt shift.

I've been apologizing for the Bible the whole time. And you've been ****ting on it. Where's the confusion?

 

[trixare4kids]

Can someone's opinion be more valuable, useful, reasonable, and therefore better than another person's?

If not why do we bother arguing over them?

If so do we really need to respect everyone's opinions when some are clearly bad?

What criteria could be used as the basis for rating someone's opinion as better or worse?

Are there different classifications of opinions where some might be closer to right and wrong whereas others are totally up to preference?

Yes, to your first question.
Ever heard of the phrase, 'time to get a second opinion'?
Doing some research and study usually leads one to getting a better outcome.

 

[Phys251]

I've been apologizing for the Bible the whole time. And you've been ****ting on it. Where's the confusion?

I'm not really concerned with your feelings about the Bible. I care whether its origin story is factually accurate. Which it isn't, no matter how many "ancestors" or whatever you call them say things to the contrary.

 

[ecofarm]

I'm not really concerned with your feelings about the Bible. I care whether its origin story is factually accurate. Which it isn't, no matter how many "ancestors" or whatever you call them say things to the contrary.

I think it's your feelings in the way. I'm not hung up on religion.

The majority of the creation story occurs in the correct order of Earth development.

 

[Lursa]

Can someone's opinion be more valuable, useful, reasonable, and therefore better than another person's?

If not why do we bother arguing over them?

If so do we really need to respect everyone's opinions when some are clearly bad?

What criteria could be used as the basis for rating someone's opinion as better or worse?

Are there different classifications of opinions where some might be closer to right and wrong whereas others are totally up to preference?

Yes you can assign value to opinions, based on the accuracy and breadth of the facts they're based on and the rationale behind using those facts to form the opinion. Philosophy can also inform opinion in a similar way but also must be used in a rational manner to support the opinion.

 

[Rexedgar]

Aren’t opinions always compared to buttholes? Some of them are certainly better than others.....:shrug:

 

[MrWonka]

Doing some research and study usually leads one to get a better outcome.

Yes you can assign value to opinions

Is the opinion of your auto mechanic more useful than your oncologist concerning your wife's breast cancer?

I find educated opinions and opinions from practical experience to be more valuable

So clearly the vast majority of people around here agree that we can assign a value to opinions. If we can make judgments about a person's opinion then what is wrong with negatively judging a person who continues to push a particularly horrible opinion despite glaring evidence to the contrary?

 

[Sampson Simpson]

Yes, opinions supported by facts and logic are a heck of a lot better than opinions that are based on nothing but wishful thinking.

Opinions are really only equal for things like "I like this food, don't like this food", "my favorite color is..." etc. those can't be wrong.

But reality and facts are not up for opinion. You can't be completely wrong, have nothing go to back it up, and then claim "its my opinion" and that somehow makes it equal. This is what Fox news has taught their viewers and most right winger live by, that everything is up for opinion, and their ignorance and being wrong is somehow excused by saying "its my opinion" and that somehow makes it equal

 

[Fledermaus]

Yes, opinions supported by facts and logic are a heck of a lot better than opinions that are based on nothing but wishful thinking.

Opinions are really only equal for things like "I like this food, don't like this food", "my favorite color is..." etc. those can't be wrong.

But reality and facts are not up for opinion. You can't be completely wrong, have nothing go to back it up, and then claim "its my opinion" and that somehow makes it equal. This is what Fox news has taught their viewers and most right winger live by, that everything is up for opinion, and their ignorance and being wrong is somehow excused by saying "its my opinion" and that somehow makes it equal

I was with you until the middle of the last paragraph...

The people most likely to say "All opinions matter" or "All opinions are equal" aren't the "Fox News" type (what ever you imagine that to be). I have seen it more with the liberal/progressive folks trying to keep from hurting anyone's feelings...

 

[MrWonka]

Yes, opinions supported by facts and logic are a heck of a lot better than opinions that are based on nothing but wishful thinking.

Opinions are really only equal for things like "I like this food, don't like this food", "my favorite color is..." etc. those can't be wrong.

So then why do we classify all of these things under the same banner of "opinion." Why not make a clear distinction between preferences and logical conclusions? I remember back in third grade learning about facts and opinions. It was taught as if everything that wasn't a fact was an opinion. The examples of opinions were always more like the personal preferences you listed which made it obvious why they were different. It seems to me that people just throw the word opinion around to classify way too many statements just because they want to hedge their bets. It's a deliberate attempt to shield themselves from judgment just in case someone makes a better argument that makes them look foolish.

 

[MrWonka]

The people most likely to say "All opinions matter" or "All opinions are equal" aren't the "Fox News" type (whatever you imagine that to be). I have seen it more with the liberal/progressive folks trying to keep from hurting anyone's feelings...

Umm... no. Liberals believe All Men are Created Equal. All Opinions are definately not.

The people screaming about all opinions being equal are those on the right who are trying to turn their bigotry around and make it seem like those of us calling them out on their bigotry are ourselves bigotry because their bigotry is just an "opinion." But racism, xenophobia, sexism, Islamophobia, homophobia... These are not opinions at all. They are fallacies. They're actually idiotic beliefs that we are free to judge negatively along with the idiots who continue to push them.

That is why hatred of those who are intolerant of other people is not itself intolerant. It isn't the person we refuse to tolerate it is their idiotic ideas. Stupid ideas can and should go away when they are demonstrated to be clearly stupid. Intolerance is just like any other weapon. If you pull a gun on a random innocent person you can expect a hero to pull a gun on you to defend that innocent person. The only way this standoff ends peacefully is if the person who initially drew their gun stands down first.

The right regularly draws their weapon on innocent people who are hurting nobody. They take aim at people for their skin color, their religion, their country of origin, their gender, their sexual orientation. Things people cannot really change about themselves nor should they be required to.

 

[Fledermaus]

Umm... no. Liberals believe All Men are Created Equal. All Opinions are definately not.

The people screaming about all opinions being equal are those on the right who are trying to turn their bigotry around and make it seem like those of us calling them out on their bigotry are ourselves bigotry because their bigotry is just an "opinion." But racism, xenophobia, sexism, Islamophobia, homophobia... These are not opinions at all. They are fallacies. They're actually idiotic beliefs that we are free to judge negatively along with the idiots who continue to push them.

That is why hatred of those who are intolerant of other people is not itself intolerant. It isn't the person we refuse to tolerate it is their idiotic ideas. Stupid ideas can and should go away when they are demonstrated to be clearly stupid. Intolerance is just like any other weapon. If you pull a gun on a random innocent person you can expect a hero to pull a gun on you to defend that innocent person. The only way this standoff ends peacefully is if the person who initially drew their gun stands down first.

The right regularly draws their weapon on innocent people who are hurting nobody. They take aim at people for their skin color, their religion, their country of origin, their gender, their sexual orientation. Things people cannot really change about themselves nor should they be required to.

Last time I checked the Venn Diagram Liberals coexisted with folks that didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. You know the type. Safe Spaces. Trophies for everyone. No scoring in sports. Having to accept and cherish everyones opinions or you are dehumanizing the opinion holder....

The remainder of your anti-right RANT is given all the consideration it IMHO deserves... None.

 

[tecoyah]

So clearly the vast majority of people around here agree that we can assign a value to opinions. If we can make judgments about a person's opinion then what is wrong with negatively judging a person who continues to push a particularly horrible opinion despite glaring evidence to the contrary?

Nothing, and everyone does so every day.

 

[MrWonka]

Last time I checked the Venn Diagram Liberals coexisted with folks that didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. You know the type. Safe Spaces. Trophies for everyone. No scoring in sports.

Correct, because we believe that all Men are created Equal which means it is wrong to judge or discourage people(particularly young people) on criteria that are largely outside of their control and has more to do with the circumstances of their birth than it does with their character.

Having to accept and cherish everyone's opinions or you are dehumanizing the opinion holder...

Again, you are willfully ignoring the distinction between judging a person for who they are vs judging a person for what they say and do.

MLK didn't say we shouldn't judge people at all. He said we should judge them on the content of their character not the color of their skin. Liberals judge people based on their character not the color of their skin or any other attribute that is determined largely by the circumstances of a person's birth.