Opine on Opinions

My opinion is worth so little.

This makes some people feel big instantly. “Yes, you're small, and my opinion is so important.” So I think it's good to bring a shotgun to the face of that quickly. No, your opinion is worth less, you've made it so. Calm down and have a seat, you stand to gain more than most here.

An opinion is “worth” the weight others give it, and only that. Our opinions are so similar in their unworth most of the time.

SOMETIMES my opinion is worth a LOT. That's usually when I know something someone else won't know. Not “can't”. “Won't”. Has chosen not to invest time in this subject.

This is how I scratch a living out, and it's never not felt like a thin margin. I go learn a thing, form opinions, then go share those opinions with others in exchange for currency. I make sure my opinions are quality, that they're rooted in reality and that adopting that opinion yourself won't mislead you.

An opinion can't be fundamentally good or bad, evil or holy. Facts are what they are, opinions spring up from them, and anywhere there's influence at stake. I suppose the trick is to find as much of the former, and dismiss as much of the latter, as possible.

A “good” opinion must have a quality we appreciate, and the most fundamental feature of an opinion is the degree to which its roots touch facts. A “good” opinion must at least do one of the following:

• Lead the person, in their private considerations, toward facts
• Enrich the person’s life

Without one of these qualities, can we call an opinion “good,” or is it just “an opinion?”

A “bad” opinion may be too easy to toy with compared to a “good” one. So, instead, let's consider that an “evil” opinion must be something not just uprooted from the firmament of reality, but actively harmful. Evil is dumb enough in itself to try to define fully, here all I truly care about is that it's a “good enough” idea by far. We do truly know it when we see it.

I think most fundamentally, “evil” opinions cause people to act against their own interests. They are propaganda. They are manipulation. Common traits appear to me to be that they will:

• Actively lead a person to ideas not rooted in fact

But also might:

• Harm your health - “Before going to a doctor for that condition that I have no medical expertise on, you should instead spend critical time on homeopathy! You know how medicine actually works? Well what if you only took, like, a really tiny dose of it instead?! Magic!”
• Rob you blind - The idea of getting rich off NFTs and Crypto comes to mind. Not rooted in facts, rooted in fantasy. Those who DID make money weren't the ones eating up the truly Evil Opinions following the opening of the gates.
• Leave you lonely - Alas, you're an incurable asshole, and no one loves you. What is an ultra-logical Defender Of The Truth to do? Why, accept the simple idea that you're fucking wrong 🥳🌈 Behold, the other side of the tunnel! Simply dropping your shit opinions rooted in evil itself allowed you to rejoin society! It turned out, everyone knew you were full of it all along. Sad trombone noises. You see, their life experiences conflict with your opinions. Given the two, people should take their own experiences. And buddy, if you push your opinion, I've got a capital ‘E’ word for you that will absolutely fit you. Yeah, that's just Evil.