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Can opinions be better or worse?

Can opinions be rated as better or worse?

  • Yes, some opinions can be rated better or worse.

    Votes: 20 46.5%
  • Yes, most opinions can be rated better or worse.

    Votes: 9 20.9%
  • Yes, all opinions can be rated better or worse.

    Votes: 7 16.3%
  • No, all opinions are equal.

    Votes: 7 16.3%

  • Total voters
    43

MrWonka

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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?
 
Easy.

My opinions are better. Other opinions are worse.
 
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?

Opinions become true or false when supported by fact or contradicted by fact.

Better or worse is just appealing to popularity.
 
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?

Let's consider some examples:

-"My favorite color is blue" is simply a personal preference and is not any better or worse than "my favorite color is pink."
-"I prefer McDonald's to Burger King" might be a bit better than the converse, or vice versa, but there's no way that it could be absolutely wrong or right.
-"I believe that a fascist government would be better than a democratic government" is an inherently inferior opinion to the converse.
-"I believe that God created the world in six days" is falsified by overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
 
Opinions become true or false when supported by fact or contradicted by fact.
If an opinion is true or false then it is a fact not an opinion.

Better or worse is just appealing to popularity.

So someone said that it was going to rain tomorrow because he saw his dog itch himself behind his left ear instead of his right, and I said the meteorologist on the T.V. said there's a zero percent chance of rain tomorrow. Would it be an appeal to popularity to say I trust the meteorologist's opinion versus the guy who gets whether tips from his dog?
 
-"I believe that God created the world in six days" is falsified by overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

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.
 
If an opinion is true or false then it is a fact not an opinion.



So someone said that it was going to rain tomorrow because he saw his dog itch himself behind his left ear instead of his right, and I said the meteorologist on the T.V. said there's a zero percent chance of rain tomorrow. Would it be an appeal to popularity to say I trust the meteorologist's opinion versus the guy who gets whether tips from his dog?

The meteorologist is basing his statement on mathematical models. You know...facts and probabilities.
 
Some opinions have greater weight than others. If you have serious inflammation, redness of the skin and the weeping of interstitial fluid coming out of a very painful leg and you are given two opinions about it. Are you going accept the opinion of your five-year old boy who advises you to do nothing because your leg looks so cool because it mlike Hellboy's leg? Are you going to accept the opinion of your 21-year old daughter who is studying in medical school to be a doctor and she advises you to see a doctor immediately because she suspects you have a local infection of cellulitis which may be spreading and could be a life threatening condition? I know which person's advice I would follow.

So some opinions and some opinion holders have greater weight than others.have greater weight than others.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.
 
Some opinions are better than others. While opinions are not facts, some people’s opinions are better supported by the facts than others.

For example, if I have a weird rash on my arm and a dermatologist gives me their opinion of what it is (without running tests) and a lawyer gives me their opinion of what it is, the dermatologist’s opinion is worth more because it is informed by years of relevant knowledge.
 
opinions are equal. facts are not.
 
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?

Of course SOME opinions can be better or worse than others . . . it depends on the subject. if the topic is TRUELY a subjective one then opinions are equal but if its not then there could be laws, rights, facts, society views, studies and logic that make one opinion better or worse.


Person A, i like blue best
Person B, I like orange best

neither is better in general


Person A: all women are stupid whores and should just be slaves to us men
Person B: all women should have the same rights and freedoms as men and be treated equally under the law.

in 2019 in ameriaca person A is a jackass and so is his opinion based on again laws, supporting facts, society views etc. In some other time person A might have been spot on, though again looking at it now we still judge it.
 
If an opinion is true or false then it is a fact not an opinion.



So someone said that it was going to rain tomorrow because he saw his dog itch himself behind his left ear instead of his right, and I said the meteorologist on the T.V. said there's a zero percent chance of rain tomorrow. Would it be an appeal to popularity to say I trust the meteorologist's opinion versus the guy who gets whether tips from his dog?

Are you serious with this example? LMAO is so this expalins A LOT!!!
 
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?

See my signature....
 
The meteorologist is basing his statement on mathematical models. You know...facts and probabilities.

So if the dog owner saw his dog itch his left ear last week and then it rained the following day wouldn't he be basing that on fact?
 
So if the dog owner saw his dog itch his left ear last week and then it rained the following day wouldn't he be basing that on fact?

what fact?
 
Are you serious with this example? LMAO is so this explains A LOT!!!

Speaking of opinions that are worthless. Generally, if you want your opinion taken seriously you have to explain it with evidence or some type of logical argument. You should try it some time. You just keep offering opinions, but you never seem to want to give anything close to a justification for why you believe them.
 
So if the dog owner saw his dog itch his left ear last week and then it rained the following day wouldn't he be basing that on fact?

Causation and correlation, if you please.

I am betting you can't find one that holds up to any sort of scrutiny.
 
Causation and correlation, if you please.

I am betting you can't find one that holds up to any sort of scrutiny.

Right...but clearly it's not a fact that it will rain tomorrow. So if someone tells you it's going to rain tomorrow are they offering an opinion, a fact or something else which would be classified as Fill in the blank ?
 
Right...but clearly it's not a fact that it will rain tomorrow. So if someone tells you it's going to rain tomorrow are they offering an opinion, a fact or something else which would be classified as Fill in the blank ?

The value of their opinion will be rooted in what information they are using to form that opinion. Whether it will rain or not is indeterminate. So determining whether it will rain or not will always be opinion until we get some better meteorological models.
 
Speaking of opinions that are worthless. Generally, if you want your opinion taken seriously you have to explain it with evidence or some type of logical argument. You should try it some time. You just keep offering opinions, but you never seem to want to give anything close to a justification for why you believe them.
Sweet Irony, your butt hurt is showing :laughat:

Ill ask you again . . are you serious with that example?
 
Sweet Irony, your butt hurt is showing :laughat:

Ill ask you again . . are you serious with that example?

Do you even know what this discussion is about? Of course, I'm serious with the example. Can you even attempt to offer a reason why you think it's a bad one? The person I was actually talking to clearly seems to follow what I'm saying. Why is it so hard for you?
 
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