Does every opinion have the same value?

Does every opinion have the same value?

Without exceptions?

And if someone knows nothing about a topic?

And if someone lies shamelessly?

And if someone promotes ideas openly against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? (*)

(*) (I was tempted to write “against the Gospel,” but we live in a time when even Christians, confronted with the words of Jesus, are capable of giving a nice middle finger… imagine non-believers in that case.. 😅)

1 • Freedom and responsibility; freedom is responsibility

Freedom of expression (also known as freedom of thought) is one of the greatest achievements of Western society.

Now let’s try to take off the fluo-lensed glasses, which turn the world into a happy island where “milk and honey” flow, where unicorns defecate marshmallows, and where J.D. at the end of Scrubs leaves that psychopath Elliot and marries Kim Briggs…

…

…freedom of expression is not just a right. It is also a responsibility.

Freedom, in fact (in any context), is a bit like a tool; it can be used for good or for ill…

2 • Can anyone express their own opinion (?)

Now.

Far be it from me to muzzle people if they say something that annoys me…

Or to send them to forced labor in the secret tungsten mines under the Vatican (whose tunnels extend for kilometers beneath St. Peter’s), if they spout obvious nonsense about the Gospel and Jesus..

.

…but, as I mentioned a couple of years ago (indeed, it was Umberto Eco who said it), I am seriously puzzled that it is a positive thing that anyone can chime in on the most diverse issues…

…especially when their ignorance on the subject is evident:

3 • Does every opinion have the same value (?)

But let’s get to the title of the little page, namely whether “every opinion has the same value.”

Those who support this thesis follow a similar line of reasoning:

1. You and I have different opinions.
2. You and I – as individuals – have the same value.
3. Therefore, our opinions have the same value.

At first glance, it seems reasonable.

Why do I say “at first glance”?

Because in reality, anyone supporting this syllogism is implicitly assuming this point between the 2nd and 3rd:

• Opinions have the same value as the individuals who express them.

… which, of course, is false.

The value of opinions is different!

To begin with, it differs in the technical/scientific field, where the quality of opinions usually (*) corresponds to the competence and knowledge someone has in a specific area.

(*) (Anyway, this thing about “technical expertise” always needs to be taken with a grain of salt… there are so many no-vax doctors, flat Earth geologists, nutritionists who know the secret to make you lose 15 kilos in 3 days, journalists who deny the massacres in Nazi camps or Soviet Gulags, historians who believe that Jesus never existed…)

Not to mention that, in any case, “technical expertise” in a particular field is not indicative of “high-quality opinions” in other contexts:

• There are people who have reached “the top” in a particular field academics, department heads, artists, writers, politicians, managers, influencers) who have mediocre, haphazard, approximate, and bland opinions on many other aspects of life;
• There are simple people – who in the eyes of the world “don’t count for anything” – (like my late grandmother Olga, who had only completed middle school because of the war preventing her from finishing high school), whose opinions on love, sacrifice, dignity, and many other things would silence many modern-day radio opinion makers and “keyboard lions”…

Conclusion (A.K.A. Auto-psy)

Before these “third-grade musings” of mine get shared on social media, tagging (or alluding to) someone you’d like to silence…

…no, I’m sorry, that’s not the point!

The point is another one… and it concerns me…

…a few days ago, while reading a book, I came across a page where the author talked about a series of expressions that are often difficult to pronounce.

One of these is “I don’t know”:

Wow, what a liberation to read this sentence! Or rather: what a desire for freedom!

In hindsight, in fact, I have the impression that I have read a lot of books not so much for the pleasure of learning something new…

…but to use them as a weapon to hit someone else on the head, or feel entitled to talk about a certain topic, or self-assign the permission to write lists of “people-who-can-speak” and “people-who-must-be-silent” when addressing a specific theme.

…

Blessed “I don’t know”!

How much I would like to learn to say it more often, instead of my continuous “in my opinion” (damn me!).

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(Spring 2021)