i’m musing on the subject of opinions today. i’ve always thought that an opinion involved thinking about a subject and drawing conclusions based on the evidence. i could (now) say that that was my opinion upon opinions.

i was thinking today about how many people seem to hold opinions that aren’t based on any thought or knowledge and how that annoys me. i was thinking about how often i say ‘i don’t have an opinion on that really, i don’t know very much about it.’ and about how i often feel overwhelmed and undereducated when other people have strong viewpoints on a subject and i’ve never thought about half of these things deeply enough to argue for or against the matter.

well, it seems i’m in the wrong. i looked up the definition and discovered that i’ve been being too scientific by half. whilst a lower rank of definition does indeed make an opinion a viewpoint that’s backed up by a body of knowledge, the main definition of an opinion is…

a belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof i’m far more floored by this than i care to admit. i don’t think i want to have any opinions now, the concept seems terribly unwieldy.