Posted by
Doctor Demex on Thursday, December 28, 2006 6:49:55 PM
People frequently ask me what I think about things. If what I say makes sense to them and they agree with it, then they thank me for my opinion. But if they disagree with my opinion, they call me "opinionated." Let's look at that term.
It's important to have opinions, but people get confused between having opinions and being opinionated. Is being opinionated bad? Apparently it is, because calling someone opinionated is an insult. What's insulting about it? Well, for one thing, an opinionated person tends to express his opinions freely. What about syndicated columnists? Syndicated columnists express their opinions freely, but they are not considered opinionated. That's because columnists are paid to express their opinions and are usually good at explaining why they hold them.
So an opinionated person tends to express his opinions a little TOO freely, without provocation, and when others don't really want to hear them. The opinionated person is usually considered stubborn and unreasonably dismissive of the views of others. As with most other things, reasonableness is the test. If someone holds an opinion after careful study, he is entitled to be stubborn in defending his position, because he no doubt believes he holds his position for good reasons. He is also within his rights to dismiss other people's views as being wrong if he has already considered them and has reasons for rejecting them. But if he UNREASONABLY dismisses attempts to change his mind, then it's fair to deem him opinionated.
I'm more interested in being right than in winning, so I never stubbornly refuse to consider an argument from anyone trying to prove me wrong if that person is making an honest, intelligent argument and not parroting bumper-sticker slogans.
Many people fail to discriminate between the opinionated blowhard and the sincere defender who comes by his views honestly. These indiscriminate people are usually the same lazy thinkers who rail the loudest against stereotypes even while perpetuating them with more fervor than the people they call opinionated. You know the types; they tend to make themselves stereotypes because of their predictable views: There is no such thing as good or bad except when they're expressing their own beliefs that all wars are bad, that all guns are bad, that all corporations are bad, or that all Republicans are bad (except President Lincoln, whom they don't know was a Republican).
This is easy to understand, though, because, as I have said before, in most cases not involving criminal behavior, a person can hold an opinion without a reason. Because it is so easy to hold an opinion without thinking it through, there is a natural tendency to assume that the person holding the opinion has NOT thought it through and therefore is just another stubborn, opinionated fool.