Ask Lemmy

I pick my subjects based on how much I actually have a fair deal of knowledge about.

I don't dare enter discussions that's beyond my knowledge, like hardcore scientific shit.

It is ok to not have an opinion or not want to divulge it due to backlash. Not worth wasting your energy on people looking for a fight.

It depends on what the opinion is on If you don't have an opinion on whether strawberry or raspberry jam makes no difference

But if it's something that affects you or people you care about (or people you should care about) and you don't form an opinion that reflects badly

I'd say that if you do have an opinion and state an opinion on something, then you should also know enough to explain why.

Specifically about politics, it's scary how many people have an opinion without knowing why. Politics is also something that everyone should have an opinion on, because it affects pretty much everything, so everyone do have an interest in something political. It shouldn't be based on feelings or the charisma of the candidate or group pressure. It should be based on what affects you and how you'd want it done.

Having an opinion about everything is a sign of extreme hubris. Most people have no knowledge about most of things (lacking education and experience in most of the areas) yet many feel like experts in macroeconomy, geopolitics, social topics, culture - anything and everything.

I think it's better to be quiet on a matter you don't understand.

IDK man.

I mean, it's okay to not have positions on a lot of things. People tend to get upset if the position you're dithering over is whether they or their loved ones deserve to live or have equal human rights. Most other things, honorable people may differ.

How important is it to educate yourself and ask questions?

Very. Everything is political, and ignorance about politics is a luxury. It allows others to make decisions for you, often ones you wouldn't choose yourself.

Polite society - "Never, ever discuss politics or religion. Thinking that you can change someone's mind on either of these subjects is foolish and arrogant and the conversation will always, without fail, end in an argument"

Americans for some fucking reason - "Hold my high fructose corn syrup"

So this is interesting... My favorite of the definitions of "opinion" I found is

belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge

Because I was about to say that it's impossible not to have an opinion, which might not be entirely correct.

In DBT we were told that there are helpful, consequential and inconsequential ehm... evaluations? Assessments? Judgments? I don't know the exact translation. Anyway, an important thing I realized then was that opinions/values etc are not something you form consciously, they just kinda pop up in your head and change shapes depending on what you learn and experience. You are able to detach from your opinions, look at them from the outside.

edit: so what I ultimately wanted to tell you is that you can do this detachment thing with other people's opinions as well.

Of course, it’s okay. Being able to say “I don’t know” is a sign of intelligence in itself.

A huge number of people form opinions based on very limited knowledge, but these opinions then become part of their identity, and they feel compelled to defend them tooth and nail. I think the middle ground here is the idea of “strong opinions, loosely held,” meaning you have an opinion, but you understand it’s based on the best knowledge available at the time. You leave room for new information and allow your opinion to evolve. In fact, most opinions probably should be like that. There are very few views I hold that I feel are almost guaranteed not to change.

The Dunning-Kruger effect plays a big role here. When someone gains a moderate amount of knowledge on a subject, they often feel like they have a good understanding of it. But as they keep learning, they realize just how little they actually know. Uninformed people, by contrast, don’t know what they don’t know. These are the ones who write comments on social media pretending they’ve solved complex issues with simplistic solutions like “just do X,” while completely ignoring all the nuance. When you then try to introduce that nuance, they dig their heels in, taking it as a personal attack rather than a critique of their idea. This happens because they didn’t leave room for new information - they locked in their opinion, made it part of their identity, and threw away the key.

Can I have your opinion on the weather on Raxacoricofallapatorians right now?

• You've never heard of it? Absolutely fair that you don't have an opinion then.
• You don't care? Also fair not to have an opinion.
• You haven't bothered to stay up to date with Slitheen weather politics? Fair, no need to have an opinion.
• You just don't want to form an opinion, just cuz? Yep, fair, no opinion it is.

Heck, you can have an opinion and just go "fuck it, no I am not sharing it". That's also fine.

short answer: yes

long answer: opinions are kind of a privilege. if you're someone working 9 to 5 you probably couldn't give a shit about anything other than relaxing and winding down from the stress of a work week. if you're someone who manages to still be involved, congrats. pushing this unto other people imo is not fair. ideally people would work less and have more free time to get situated with how their surroundings are being legislated

I have a hell of a lot of respect for people who are forthright and just say "You know, I don't have a lot of experience regarding , so I don't think I can weigh in on that"

it amazes me how seldom people are brave enough to admit they don't know something.

I have no opinions on Israel vs Palestine except that it's bad and I want it to stop because it's hurting so many people. I don't understand the conflict or why we should want one side to win over the other. I realize Israel is controversial but I don't really know why.

Deciding to ignore something that causes people to suffer because it doesn't affect you is wrong. Not having a set opinion on how to fix it is perfectly normal. Not everyone can understand the details enough to form an informed opinion. Just don't decide something isn't a problem because one group says it's not without real evidence, especially if they're the ones who created and/or benefit from the problem.

Everyone thinks they need an opinion on everything until they order a sub from Subway and the server asks if they want 25 or 26 sesame seeds on their buns.

Certain things are OK to not have a political opinion on. Example: Taxes are complicated and most people don't understand them; most probably want to pay less of them but do not really need to put their limited political energy to focusing on them.
That applies to most nonpolitical subjects too... most things to have an opinion on like food, movies, music whatever, are generally of little consequence.

Things that affect the base existence of large swaths of the population, aka human rights, are not something a living citizen can admit a "don't care" opinion on. You either want to live free or you don't, and having no opinion on such is how you end up without the legal right to any opinions..

The key to both is to have a complete information stream before forming any opinion or comitting to not having one. I do a nonzero amount of research even before writing a lot of comments here on Lemmy to make sure my facts are straight, and maybe 40% of the time discover it's either not worth my time to write, or I was initially wrong and my comment shouldn't be made.

I don’t care whether it’s OK or not

Not having an opinion is MUCH better than sticking to an uninformed opinion with stubborn fervor. Nobody can possibly know everything, so it’s perfectly fine to take time out to research something, or decide that it’s not worth your time and forget about it completely.

It's fine to not have an opinion as long as you aren't making a decision based on that ignorance

On something, yeah. On everything? No.

I would argue that if you recognize you lack the knowledge to form an opinion, you’re doing better than 90% of people online.

"I don't know enough to have an informed opinion about this" is an admirable stance to take.

When it's a cop-out for not wanting to be politically informed, it's a crappy place to be. It can sound a lot like "I don't know and I don't care".

Relevant Key & Peele: That One Friend Who Makes Everything Awkward.

You need to have an opinion on everything that ever happened. Every forgotten Canadian drama series, every city in the Dominican Republic, every American football player. If you don't you are failing to appreciate the world in all its glory and will go to hell as a consequence.

I think it is fine to not have an opinion on an issue.

I think it depends on what you may or may not have an opinion about.

Extreme example: if you don't have an opinion about nazis, you might be a nazi

Maybe 😃

People are terrible. They judge you no matter what you do. I'm ready to go live in the woods. At least wolves only kill you because they're hungry.

I may be the wrong person to ask right now haha.

It's fine to not have an opinion. It's even fine to have an opinion and keep it to yourself. No-one has the right to an argument with you, after all.

Lets abstract it a bit and turn it around: should every person immediately have on opinion on any subject or statement as soon as they learn about it? Even if they know absolutely nothing about it, or worse only know falsehoods?

If you think no, then people indeed do not need to have an opinion on something.

I don’t have an opinion about this.

Caught in this battle so often, never forgot it when I saw/read it in the Witcher series (games/books) - this is some of the core things about the series. Gerald must pick a side and he doesn't.

Yes. I think it's good not to form opinions about subjects you don't know much about.

When it comes to voting in an election, it's possible to make good decisions about candidates without forming opinions about every policy issue. That's kind of the point of representative democracy.

It can be very harmful to act on an uninformed opinion. There's also simply too much out there to be informed on everything, so logically there should be lots of things you aren't able to have a valid opinion on.

People frequently get around this by finding people they think they can trust, and borrowing their "informed opinion" on things. But this can also be risky, and easily leads to groups with highly polarized opinions (political parties, etc). Even borrowing scientific/expert "opinions" on things can lead you astray, as we've seen with many of the funded studies on food health. Two experts can easily have conflicting opinions on something, with strong arguments/evidence to back up their stance.

So basically having completely uninformed opinions is dangerous, it's not possible to learn everything well enough to have a good opinion on it, and borrowing others opinions on things only works some of the time. So it's probably best to accept that you shouldn't have a strong opinion on most things, and to be always willing to re-evaluate your opinions if you run into evidence that refutes your current opinions.

Do you think it's okay to not have an opinion on something?

Yes, absolutely. There are enough issues in the world that you probably don't know about a lot of them. And even once you are made aware of an issue, you likely don't have enough information to form a well considered opinion. It's also possible that you will never have enough information on an issue to have a well formed opinion. You only have so many hours in a day and, unless an issue impacts you directly, it's quite possible that you just won't have the time to put into it. There's no reason to feel bad about this, the issues that are most important to me may not be the issues which are most important to you.

How important is it to educate myself and ask questions?

Very important. If you are going to have an opinion on something, you should try to have a basic understanding of the issue. You'll never be an expert on everything; but, for issues which you truly care about, you should have at least a passing understanding of the subject matter. Also, asking questions is always good. If someone is trying to shutdown your asking questions, you should start questioning that person's motives.

Do you feel that pressure to have an opinion on everything?

Nope. One of the big secrets of life is learning to set boundaries. Just because someone else is incredibly passionate about something doesn't mean you need to be. Learn to tell people "fuck you and the horse that came on you". If that bothers them, then that's their problem, not yours. This isn't carte blanche to be an asshole, you should still strive to be a good person and act in pro-social ways. But, it does mean that you can draw a line and not have to own everyone else's problems all the time.

"I don't know enough on the topic to have an opinion."... is what I use. I'll even use that if I just don't want to talk about something with someone I know doesn't know the topic