"I'm Entitled to My Opinion!" Update!
Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 06:54:25 AM PDT
Often stated forcefully, "I'm entitled to my opinion" has become the mantra of the ignorant and misinformed. In listening to Washington Journal, this morning, I heard caller after caller make the most painful statements about the various candidates, each firmly believing that holding an opinion was all that mattered.
"I'm undecided between McCain and Obama." That particular gem was close to the topper. Imagine a voter who knows so little about either government, or governing philosophy, that they could be undecided between two such different candidates!
"I'm an invalid and I watch all of the candidate commercials and listen to all of the calls from the campaigns." Now, there is a great source for your information about the single most important decision you make every four years!
"I think Hillary is mean!" And you would have obtained that particular piece of information, how, exactly?
"Mitt Romney is the only true Republican in the race." Based on what assessment?
The percentage of people who feel free to express an uninformed, vapid, silly opinion is chilling. There was a time, not so very long ago, when people who expressed opinions were expected to have a through grounding in the basic forms of argument, an understanding of the issues, and some glimmer of knowledge about the facts upon which they spoke. Now, not so much.
We often complain about the pundits and commentators who hold the microphone on TV and radio, and dead tree editions of magazines and newspapers, while completely overlooking the reinforcing effects of broadcasts such as those on C-SPAN which allow anyone to say any damned fool thing without challenge. If they don't curse, can construct a reasonable approximation of an English sentence, and tend to think they are talking about politics, they have free rein to spout any nonsense they can concoct. Opinion is king.
Not information. Not analysis. Not a careful consideration of competing philosophies. Just their shallow, silly opinion. And no, it's not OK.
It not OK to have groomed an entire culture to believe that you don't need to actually KNOW anything. You just have to feel, imagine, react, and spout what ever ill conceived idea pops into your head and that somehow makes you a "player" in the national dialogue.
As Progressives we want, we fight, we vote, to include everybody in the process. But after an hour and a half of listening to the abject stupidity on parade this morning, I'm wondering where we went wrong.
One major issue for me (and I heard Obama talk about this last night in Boston) is a return to Civics classes in the public schools. Everyone should have heard, at least once, about the underlying philosophies between the party factions. Everyone should have heard, at least once, that forming an opinion without anything but a gut reaction, based on all the emotional and psychological baggage we all carry, is a disservice to the country. A REAL patriot makes some effort to know what they are talking about.
In our shiney new Opinion Culture none of the reticence to display ignorance, no belief in the value of facts or real knowledge, is required to get a hearing and possibly have an impact on others with your same depth of understanding.
Perhaps it is time for someone to stand up and say, "And just what, exactly, is the basis for that opinion?" Turn over the rock. Expose the pointless damage being done by giving everyone a stage upon which to preen and mouth a useless opinion.
UPDATE: MSNBC is reporting that hundreds of Virginia voters are complaining to the Governor's Office. Seems they went to the polls this morning and found them closed. Hint. Virginia votes on February 12th...
