Opinions without fact or reason leave us believing in nonsense

By David McElroy · November 12, 2017

I was getting frustrated with the interview Sunday afternoon, but I wanted to keep things civil and polite.

I was a guest on an Internet radio show and I’d been brought in for a political discussion about Donald Trump. One of the hosts is a woman who lives in England and isn’t fond of Trump. The other host is a man in Ohio who’s a big Trump supporter.

As we got started, I first tried to find out why the man supports Trump, so I asked him to outline what he likes about Trump’s performance as president so far. It seemed like a reasonable place to start, but things went downhill from there.

The man has a lot of opinions, but when I tried to narrow down why he believed those things, he frequently had to admit that he didn’t know the facts about the subjects. He was opposed to “illegal immigration,” for instance — and insisted he wasn’t opposed to immigration overall — but he finally admitted he didn’t have any idea how U.S. laws determine who’s allowed to immigrate legally.

On subject after subject today, most modern Americans have opinions which are not based on any reality. This man had firm opinions, but his opinions weighed his mind down so much that facts weren’t necessary. He hadn’t thought through the things he believed — and it seemed to surprise him to have someone pointing this out.

This is a very nice guy and I like him a lot. I’m not identifying him here because I don’t want to call him out or make fun of him. He doesn’t deserve that. It’s simply that what I experienced with him is typical of public discourse today — and it frustrates me.

One of the most common phrases I hear today is, “I have a right to my own opinion.” In the legal sense, this is certainly true, but the emphasis on this has had two profound effects on public discussion.

First, people tend to believe they’re supposed to have opinions about everything. Even the format of “news” programming reinforces that. These shows aren’t intended to inform us or help bridge gaps in understanding. They’re more like game shows.

“You people are on that side and the other people are on this side,” the host might as well say. “When the bell rings, y’all fight each other. Whoever fights best wins.”

This sort of shallow public fighting is a lousy way to figure out what’s true, but it makes members of the audience naturally feel as though they have to choose one side or the other — like spectators at a boxing match.

Second, if people feel that they’re supposed to choose sides — and if they’re encouraged to take one side or another about everything — that means they can’t possibly have reasoned positions about everything. Nobody could have a reasoned opinion about everything, so that means people unconsciously take positions for which they have no facts.

And because the people on television are so shallow and because it’s just a boxing match instead of reasoned discussion, it no longer occurs to people that the facts matter.

If you combine these two things, you end up with a society in which almost everybody has an opinion about almost everything — but almost nobody has the facts or solid reasoning to back up those opinions.

Our minds end up being weighed down by opinions which keep us from seeing what might be true. What’s worse, most people don’t even realize what they’re doing.

The truth is that you’re not required to have an opinion about everything.

You’re not required to have a solution to every problem in the world.

You’re not required to take a side in every fight.

Most of all, it’s very reasonable — even mature and brave — to be able to say, “I don’t know enough about this, so I don’t have an opinion.”

If you watch television “news” and read online sites that pander to one group or another — as most people do today — you’re going to feel certain that you’re right about what you believe. And you’re going to be a little lost when someone points out you have no facts with which to back up those opinions.

I don’t mind if people disagree with me. Many smart and reasonable people come to different conclusions than I do about a lot of things. That doesn’t bother me in the least. But it does bother me when someone takes a position without knowing enough about a subject or (maybe even worse) when he comes to an emotional conclusion and then cherry-picks facts to support his conclusion later.

The man on the interview with me today is a good guy. I’ve been on their show three or four times now. I believe he has a good heart and wants what is best for everyone. I just think he’s been seduced by this popular belief today that it’s fine to have passionate opinions without having the facts or reason to support them.

As I say so often, turning off your television and other sources of “news” will go a long way in helping you learn to think again in rational ways, at least as much as we humans are capable of it. You’ll be happier if you get away from that shallow world of artificial conflict over things you can do nothing to change.

Most of all, though, be brave enough to say, “I don’t know.”

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We are ruled by the dumbest and most incompetent people among us — and we have a system which allows stupid and irresponsible people to force the costs of their idiocy onto smarter and wiser people. Can we get away with that? Yes, for quite some time. But we eventually reach a point at which the dumbest of the dumb — who are habitual liars and mentally ill fools — lead us to the disasters and destruction that some of us have seen coming for years. We are approaching that point. And yet most of the idiots around us still wave their rhetorical banners of support for the evil people who are leading us to ruin — and all of them point their fingers at someone else, never noticing that their own enthusiastic support of evil is to blame. When things finally fall apart, blame yourself for your blindness to the evil, not whoever happens to be in power when it happens.

I’ve been making some changes to the site lately and there are more changes coming in the days ahead, so don’t be surprised if you some small differences. This is not a wholesale redesign, but rather the addition of some features. Since they’re smarter than I am, I’ve put Oliver and Alex in charge of the technical work, which you can see in this action photo from the control room of our media complex. I recently added a series of landing pages for readers who randomly discover the site from an Internet search. I’ve also changed the YouTube link at the top of the page to go to the new YouTube channel for video essays that reflect things I’ve already published here. (Here’s a little bit about both of the YouTube channels I’m working on.) In addition, I’m trying to move away from using Instagram, so I’m experimenting with photo plug-ins that will eventually allow me to host the pictures — cats, dogs, sunsets, whatever — that I often take. So don’t be surprised to see more changes. Thanks for your patience. Let’s hope Alex and Oliver know what they’re doing.

I have no use for the theocratic and repressive government of Iran. The people who run the country are cruel at best and evil at worst. The Iranian people deserve freedom. But I have no personal quarrel with anybody in Iran. While I’m not thrilled about a future Iranian government having nuclear weapons, I’m just as concerned about nukes in the hands of politicians in Israel, Pakistan, India, China and Russia. I’m not even thrilled with the U.S., Britain and France having them, either, because I don’t trust any politicians to be responsible with such terrible weapons. All I can say with certainty is that American taxpayers have no business attacking Iran, especially since we’re being forced to pay for this attack in order to benefit the politicians of Israel — and nobody else. If Middle Eastern countries want to fight among themselves, that’s none of my business. It’s not the business of the U.S. government, either. I have no quarrel with anybody in Iran — and having the government which claims to represent me launch an unprovoked attack against a sovereign country will only make all Americans less safe in the near future. This attack is poorly conceived and morally unjustified. Remember that when the Iranians launch attacks that we will then condemn as “terrorism.” What the U.S. is doing right now looks like terrorism to me. And let’s not forget that the attack is the latest in a long line of unconstitutional wars by various U.S. presidents — who have no legal power to declare war on their own, according to the U.S. Constitution.

A child having a tantrum understands only one thing: Did I get my way or not? He doesn’t understand the issues involved. He doesn’t understand the reasons that went into a decision. He doesn’t understand any of the things that mature and reasonable adults have to understand in order to live healthy lives. By his reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down his disastrous tariff scheme, Donald Trump shows himself to be — once more — a screaming child having a tantrum. Outside the world of mob bosses who expect to get their way every time, normal adults don’t act this way, but Trump isn’t normal. He’s an angry and vengeful man who has narcissistic personality disorder. And we are in danger as a result. Trump doesn’t understand the legal issues involved in this ruling. He doesn’t understand economics. He doesn’t understand rule of law. He doesn’t understand that he can ever be wrong. All he understands is that he didn’t get his way. And he is now a narcissistic and raging little boy who also happens to hold life-and-death power over most humans on this planet. He’s dangerous — and the system which gives him that power is even more dangerous.

Is it an attempt to blur the gender line between men and women? Or is it some weird tribute to the traditional Scottish kilt? It’s hard to say, but fashion designers keep pushing for men to wear skirts in the last few years. Both men and women in modern fashion seem oddly androgynous, as though it would be offensive for a man to look manly or for a woman to look feminine. A CNN article about the latest fashions from Paris caught my attention Monday and left me wondering about the ugly clothes the designers are hawking. If a man wants to wear a skirt — or a kilt — that’s OK with me, but I’ll stick with a traditional dark suit with a white shirt and tie. (Well, when I’m not wearing t-shirts and sweats, of course.) I always wonder who actually buys the outlandish garb from fashion designers anyway. I would be humiliated to be seen in any of this stuff, but I obviously have no sense of high fashion.

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