Are you entitled to an opinion if you're not smart?

[Goondicker]

From the sound of your original post, I'd wager you're more intelligent than average. But... you don't need to be intelligent to be smart and you don't need to be knowledgeable to be wise.

"I know that I know nothing." -Socrates

When I started studying astronomy, I noticed a similar paradox. I'd describe it like this: The more you learn about the universe... the more you realize you don't really know shit about the universe.

I'm sure most can relate to this one way or another. In short - this type of humility (that you seem to have) is far more valuable than raw intelligence.

[Jinpachi]

One of my deepest insecurities, more or less. Mediums of animation, film, and literature are my passion, and I truly do want to evolve past merely consuming content and write constructive opinions and viewpoints. Sadly, I fall short on finding individuality in both writing and opinion, and am poor at forming arguments or taking harsh criticism (I am very meek).

Overall I've concluded for the time being I am not intelligent/experienced enough and therefore am stripped of any right to hold an opinion on just about anything unless I can correct my issues. Some of my friends believe I am being overly harsh on myself but I think am humble enough to THINK like I do. I just don't know if it's too negative.

Do you judge others by your perceived level of their intelligence?

[Forgettable]

Everyone is entitled to an opinion on subjective matters.

Nobody is entitled to an opinion on objective matters.

Unintelligent people think they're entitled to an opinion on both.

So let me ask you: Are you intelligent or not?

[xChurch]

The easier it is for you to spout your opinions about things, the more like it is you don't know what you're talking about. Beware of anyone claiming to know "the truth" or that they understand a topic better than most people.

[Schattenlied]

Yes, everyone is entitled to an opinion, even "not smart" people... However, they are not entitled to anyone taking their opinion seriously.

[Deleted]

Have a lot of mixed feelings about it:

How can you form a good opinion when you never formed a bad opinion and never got constructive feedback because of it?

How can you know your opinion is good when the only reason for it being good is "because otherwise is wrong" by unrelenting authority?

How can you know your surroundings are having a good opinion and not a bad one if they refuse to acknowledge facts because they hurt their sensitivities?

Why is it okay for people to be so hostile to each other for having a different opinion when it basically amounts to disagreeing on a potentially one tiny aspect of life that is likely to have no bearing on your interactions with said person?

Why people refuse to accept principle of proportionality and instead demand prosecution for some assumed "hate speech" instead of assuming non-malicious ignorance or mindset that has been developed in different environment that makes his/her supposed "hate speech" completly normal?


Too little people ask "Why do you think so?" but instead put effort to demonize their discussion opponent as if it's a life or death battle.

[apepi]

But then what opinion you hold if you're not well informed would mean nothing would it? Why have one in the first place then if it's probably stupid?

Because you always have to question yourself. And dumb people can make you self-examine yourself. It does not take a smart person to ask a question.

[Rudkobing]

Yes, you are you entitled to an opinion if you're not smart.

[Speaknoevil]

@Tsugunai

One of my deepest insecurities, more or less. Mediums of animation, film, and literature are my passion, and I truly do want to evolve past merely consuming content and write constructive opinions and viewpoints. Sadly, I fall short on finding individuality in both writing and opinion, and am poor at forming arguments or taking harsh criticism (I am very meek).

Overall I've concluded for the time being I am not intelligent/experienced enough and therefore am stripped of any right to hold an opinion on just about anything unless I can correct my issues. Some of my friends believe I am being overly harsh on myself but I think am humble enough to THINK like I do. I just don't know if it's too negative.

First: Your meekness doesn't mean you are not intelligent, it is entirely plausible that you have been beaten down emotionally into believing this about yourself and allowing this perception to be a self fulfilling prophecy.

Second: Even if you are not in the top percentiles of typically measured types of intelligence, it doesn't mean you can't have perspectives to offer. What is often vastly more important than raw potential, is knowledge and familiarity with a topic.

Lastly: Have more confidence. Have yourself evaluated by a professional if you really want to know how your different aptitudes compare to the averages. Remember that you have a huge amount of tools at your disposal(learning materials on virtually every subject known on Earth) to make yourself a valuable contributor to any discussion.

TLDR: The people not entitled to an opinion are the ignorant, not the slightly less intelligent.

[Deleted]

If you think you a smart and haven't realized that your opinion, your thoughts, your dreams, your fantasy aren't worth more than the lowest worm then it just proves Nietzsche right once again.

[Thoughtful Trolli]

An opinion is just that. It doesn't matter. Facts do.

Many people think that those can be the same thing, but I don't think so. If you prove your opinion to be right, it becomes a fact, and no longer is an opinion.

So yes, everybody should be allowed to openly have an opinion. Wether they base it on good thinking or not is up to them. As goes with it, you should also be ready to defend it, or otherwise open yourself to riddicule. Being allowed an opinion also means you have to be ready for others to disagree with you, or challange it.

Then you get people who mess around with the facts though. Literally walk away after committing crimes because they can change things somehow, often with threats of occult mob forces.

"Many people think that those can be the same thing, but I don't think so." - your quote.

Response: Many people also realize that "facts" are only one more thing for consideration and not something to be 100% trusted even in the face of monstrously huge peer pressure, especially when attached to an epic, subjective experience of humanity that cannot be objectively detailed beyond vague descriptions in a population full of species that experience reality in different ways (Colors seen or tactile sensitivity variations experienced during illness, for example.) These people often present themselves in the very closed minded manner of saying "There are facts, there is science, and everything else is bullshit." It could take decades to bring them to light when they get stuck there, they often might not even make it, and continue to take life way too seriously.

People still have thinking to do if they're going to completely accept evolution without even thinking twice about the fact that we're still saying new species come from "random mutations" with origins impossible to trace. Like, are you still going to insist that those mutations came from, oh, say, cosmic backround radiation? Or something the creature ate, changing its bodily chemical make-up, twisting one of the DNA proteins or Alleles in a specific way to give it a physical change?

Maybe a physical interaction, like falling 10 feet, cause protein bodies in the creature to change shape and that's the mutation's origin? And that the body alone gets to say "Hey I fucking like this change, so I'm going to keep it and pass it on to your kids, if you live which you will because you have this change I like so much." If you trace any line of thought back far enough to its origin point, you get to an opinion.

As for my opinion, which I suppose this thread asked for, I discovered everything is a persuasive argument, and everything is valid, and not valid, at the same time. The best way to simplify that is to say the loudest person really is the most correct.

After all, if a bunch of insane idiots told you to behave a certain way, and you could only continue to live in that reality by doing as they say, then that makes their opinions facts since deviation from them would get you killed by them. This makes even wrong opinions correct through communal choice. It's the responsibility any enlightened mind comes to feel burdened by.

Long story short, even people with facts, like experts, are full of bullshit too.

I'm not saying they're wrong. They very well might be, but do they need to be a jackass about it? Nah. There are two parts to convincing a person to adopt a set of views: Presenting convincing information and presenting yourself as open minded as well.

They have to be a jackass about it because the loudest person wins and is right.

On the contrary. 'Proving' an opinion simply means that you have convinced somebody else to also accept your opinion (though a better word for this would be a belief). It doesn't somehow change reality and cause your opinion to become a definitive truth.



This gets into the morality discussion. What makes something beneficial or harmful? We can't really answer any of these questions without resorting to opinion until we can objectively answer that question of morality.

This is the recursion natural to the system of our existence though. That's why nobody can say even the facts are right. The opinion is ironically more correct than what is "fact."

In light of the first part of your response though, why would you not believe we're in control of what is true and what is not true? You're still going to believe there is a massive, giant, altruistic index out there which cannot be argued with but we can't access it or see it yet? What caused you to believe that?

Too little people ask "Why do you think so?" but instead put effort to demonize their discussion opponent as if it's a life or death battle.

But what if it is? What if I have to let the government put whatever it wants into my body because the majority of people seem to say "Hurr durr mandatory vaccination because people are shitty dumbfucks who need to be forced to stay alive" when a more appropriate, healthier, and intelligent stance would be "I trust humanity to do the right thing and that the appropriate people will naturally vaccinate themselves so we'll never need to use governmental authority to force them to submit to the intrusion of having their person inoculated with whatever the pharmacist companies we all know are for-profit, just like for-profit prison systems we're concerned about, want to put inside us at whim?"

Then it has become a life and death battle, hasn't it? Are you going to just outright ignore me and tell me I'm a dumbfuck like Amy Farrah Fowler or Jim Carrey too?

At least in this case you got "Why do I think so" because I've learned to offer it in general communication, which a lot of other people don't do, especially if they feel like they aren't welcome to share their "layman's opinion."

Telling people they ain't got no clothes on, buddy. I guess all I can say for the OP is that the only people who really share messages are people who don't care about what others think.

I'm having some fun lol. This shit really don't matter to me.

You word it like you need permission to have a thought or feeling about something.

Anyone can think anything at any time. Where entitlement comes in is how people treat your opinion.

I aced that one. I don't give a shit what other people think about my opinion. I talk the loudest, I have great ideas, my ideas are the best. Please don't use my opinion against me though, because as I've stated anyone can do anything with persuasion if they try hard enough and they can convince themselves that someone else's opinion is proof of some offense or grounds for abusing them in some way and then carry out said abuse, I hope I didn't upset anyone and they're going to harm me, etc.

Course if I did, it would prove my point wouldn't it? I should have just conformed to the "facts" of what the mob says. I win either way. I'm a great winner, I'm so good at winning.

[Zogarth]

Everyone can have an opinion, and at the same time everyone has the right to judge and question said opinion. If you then can't defend your opinion, or explain why you hold it, perhaps your opinion is not worth a damn.

[Speaknoevil]

If you think you a smart and haven't realized that your opinion, your thoughts, your dreams, your fantasy aren't worth more than the lowest worm then it just proves Nietzsche right once again.

The mind numbing tedium of sophomoric, pseudo intellectual nihilism strikes again.

[Deleted]

The mind numbing tedium of sophomoric, pseudo intellectual nihilism strikes again.

No if you ask without naming your normative base, which is always subjective and individual (or collective hi religion) someone who answers can relate to (to tell what you want to hear) this is the only thing that comes to mind.

[garr21]

Everyone should have an opinion no matter the intelligence level. So let me expand the topic at hand.
What is the danger of letting the smartest rule the world? I can tell you in 1 word that word is arrogance. A lot of people have it. But tell someone of high intelligence his opinion is the only one that matters and that instantly breeds a superiority complex. In the end he is not taking on others point of view he is just making a decision for the rest of us because he knows best because hes smarter than us.

[jamisawesome]

Anyone can build a valid opinion, it's all about how well it can hold up to scrutiny.

[Paperfox]

There is a huge difference between intelligence and wisdom, you can have one without the other. Jails are full of smart people, and I imagine that there are lots of dumb but wise people who will enjoy a good retirement.

Having - and forming - your own opinion on something (and maybe not going along with what everybody says) is one of the few things that no body, and thing short of a coma can take from you.

[Deleted]

But what if it is? What if I have to let the government put whatever it wants into my body because the majority of people seem to say "Hurr durr mandatory vaccination because people are shitty dumbfucks who need to be forced to stay alive"

I dont know why you wouldnt want to stay alive.

when a more appropriate, healthier, and intelligent stance would be "I trust humanity to do the right thing and that the appropriate people will naturally vaccinate themselves so we'll never need to use governmental authority to force them to submit to the intrusion of having their person inoculated with whatever the pharmacist companies we all know are for-profit, just like for-profit prison systems we're concerned about, want to put inside us at whim?"

If that really is the case then people's opinions are the least of your problem. We live in a globalized world, you're not obliged to stay all your life in USA.

Then it has become a life and death battle, hasn't it?

Only if you have no where else to move.

Are you going to just outright ignore me and tell me I'm a dumbfuck like Amy Farrah Fowler or Jim Carrey too?

I will not. If issues you have presented are so dire and if that is the general american sentiment then I cant help but wonder why dont you guys just switch continent to Europe. We dont have for profit prisons here and we have tax included health care.

At least in this case you got "Why do I think so" because I've learned to offer it in general communication, which a lot of other people don't do, especially if they feel like they aren't welcome to share their "layman's opinion."

And I appreciate this. If I were in your shoes I would evacuate ASAP in whatever capacity I can. If that is out of question then maybe you could move to a state that has the least of those problems.

Telling people they ain't got no clothes on, buddy. I guess all I can say for the OP is that the only people who really share messages are people who don't care about what others think.

I would be inclided to believe that if people didnt responded to each other back and for. But people do respond back and forth so they do care. It's just that they dont care the way you want them to care.

[Alcsaar]

So, you can have whatever opinion you want, but don't have the wrong one!

No, don't have the uneducated one during a discussion that requires a modicum of intelligence or knowledge of the topic.

[billymayz]

keep in mind you can be intelligent and not have an opinion, or reserve the right not to express it due to not having enough information to have a definitive answer from your point of view