Allie Kitsune
Crow T. Robot
Always Feelin' Foxy.
Celestial Princess in Exile.
Posts: 46,072
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Post by Allie Kitsune on Dec 28, 2009 2:09:09 GMT -5
Of course, there is the whole "I personalize my opinions" as well. I.e., someone who refutes or does not share your opinion (neutral pronoun in this case) is attacking "you." And that's the issue. On a place like this board that can be a bit dangerous, as it's just the exchange of ideas. The one thing behind all of this that I think gets ignored, is that many people on the internet take their preferences and tastes to be a sign of intelligence, and so it becomes a source of pride to the point of spouting elitism at times. And then people get into the mindset that anybody who disagrees with them must be completely mentally bankrupt (and as a challenge to their self-perceived intellectual superiority), especially on the internet where it's easy to whip up a virtual lynch mob if you even have the slightest bit of charisma and enough people you know will agree with you. Even so, that's not a good thing, and there's no reason to tell other people that they're retarded or need to kill themselves (or be institutionalized) because they have a different opinion on things like wrestling, movies, etc...
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Triple Kelly
Vegeta
Not once, twice, but three times a Kelly
Posts: 9,470
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Post by Triple Kelly on Dec 28, 2009 2:34:11 GMT -5
I'd really like to think most people have more important things to do in their real lives than to actively care and complain about whether someone liked/hated a movie/tv show/video game or not. But I guess I'm wrong. Poor innocent Kelly. I used to believe things too. I still believe in peanut butter.
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Post by ThereIsNoAbsurdistOnlyZuul on Dec 28, 2009 3:22:40 GMT -5
[quote author=spandauballetmark board=offtopic thread=248324 post=5431470 Of course, there is the whole "I personalize my opinions" as well. I.e., someone who refutes or does not share your opinion (neutral pronoun in this case) is attacking "you." And that's the issue. On a place like this board that can be a bit dangerous, as it's just the exchange of ideas. The one thing behind all of this that I think gets ignored, is that many people on the internet take their preferences and tastes to be a sign of intelligence, and so it becomes a source of pride to the point of spouting elitism at times. And then people get into the mindset that anybody who disagrees with them must be completely mentally bankrupt (and as a challenge to their self-perceived intellectual superiority), especially on the internet where it's easy to whip up a virtual lynch mob if you even have the slightest bit of charisma and enough people you know will agree with you. Even so, that's not a good thing, and there's no reason to tell other people that they're retarded or need to kill themselves (or be institutionalized) because they have a different opinion on things like wrestling, movies, etc...[/quote] Equal parts that, and what I said. Either way, it is a sign of attachment, which while it can be good, without moderation leads to heelish behavior, such as what we all have seen on the net when it comes to people saying something.
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H-Fist
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 6,485
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Post by H-Fist on Dec 28, 2009 4:28:43 GMT -5
It depends. Opinions can be wrong. Opinions on movies differ when it comes to taste, I don't really discuss movies because I don't care about movies. But, if you are of the opinion that the moon is made of blue cheese, then, I'm sorry, I'm not going to be open minded and accept your opinion. It's been said that you should be open minded, but you shouldn't be so open minded that your brain falls out. Even on matters that I usually discuss like wrestling, if someone thinks Kurt Angle is a bad wrestler, that maybe their opinion, but that can be proven wrong, by providing examples of matches in the past, other people's opinions in the business, observing how he moves, observing psychology, etc. I mean, there's nothing against the person if they don't like Kurt Angle's wrestling, but it's also good to be able to explain why. Like, I don't like so and so, so there. And then when someone challenges your opinion, you go, ohh, I can't believe you have the nerve to say my opinion is this, that or the other thing. I'm never afraid to defend my opinion, and if I feel I'm wrong, then I'm wrong, but if I feel I'm right, then I'm right, and I will attempt to defend my opinion as much as I can. When it breaks down to flaming, then it just shows that. On opinions on movies, I can't really comment about that, because I don't really follow movies. I'm going to agree with Andrew on this one. There is no such thing as a "right" opinion, but there are wrong ones. Most things we discuss here are subjects without such absolutes, granted. But there are times when someone's opinion is based on things that are demonstrably untrue ("Drinking milk is bad" can be a valid opinion, depending on the reason for the opinion. "Drinking milk is bad because they have to slice open the cow's throat to get it" is not a valid reason for that opinion because it isn't true; However, "Drinking milk is bad because of the treatment of the cows" is something that can actually be argued, and thus makes that opinion, like, your opinion, man.) I mean, there have been a number of times where there has been some opinion stated in a thread or an article posted. Someone tosses out a criticism of the article that's just based on their opinion, as if that makes the initial opinion invalid. Then it'll devolve like this: 1. initial opinion: "the top ten sports performances of 2009 were..." and they all come from MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, golf and internat'l soccer 2. person responds: "how can that be a best-of list without distance runner X or small-college wrestler Y? and it's obvious that football player Z was carried by his team, so he doesn't belong." 3. Someone'll try (I do this too often, and seem never to learn) to qualify person 2's comment with something like: "this author typically takes the size of the stage the athlete performs on into account and prefers the major team sports yada yada... 4. same person responds: "X did something incredible this year and it's better than yada yada; if you knew anything, you'd know i'm right and the article is trash." 5. same someone'll respond: "i get what you're saying and know where you're coming from, but that's not how the author does things. it's a taste issue yada yada." 6. instead of the issue being squashed, it sometimes goes from here to the WHY CAN'T YOU GET IT THROUGH YOUR SKULL?! phase, which bugs the crap out of almost all of us. So in response to Triple Kelly's point about real lives and better things to do, remember that a lot of jobs and daily tasks don't offer us much intellectual challenge. If we've mastered a task, then we don't necessarily need to fire a whole lot of brain to get through it. Thus, something like a message board where there is the opportunity for occasional fruitful debate amidst the yelling and boldface type is appealing on either a conscious or subconscious level. I, for one, enjoy having back-and-forths about wrestling and pro sports because they offer a nice substitute for the number-wrangling and research/paper-writing I did while in college. I need the intellectual stimulation (from a pretend sport, mind you) to keep all the knives in my mental toolbox sharp. And sometimes I luck out and find someone in the same place. And other times I want to tune out the rapid-fire brain and make Tommy Dreamer fat jokes.
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Post by strykerdarksilence on Dec 28, 2009 5:07:03 GMT -5
YOUR OPINION IS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD!
I agree with the general tone of this thread. I do particularly dislike the elitism attatched to opinions as has been mentioned.
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Post by Koda, Master Crunchyroller on Dec 28, 2009 5:16:04 GMT -5
Actually, "facts" are opinions too. Remember, history is "facts" but history is written by the winners, and are written in a way to make them look good. Facts are just opinions. I mean come on, 2 + 2 = 4? How is that a fact? That's an opinion. In my opinion 2 + 2 = pretzel. And that's a fact. Facts are just solidified opinions that won the internet debates in the past. There is no such thing as a true fact, really. Facts and opinions are both things created with the human mind, they aren't really real. We may think we are the superior species, but those lions over there or those bears over yonder don't think so. They think we taste good.
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Post by Red Impact on Dec 28, 2009 23:10:09 GMT -5
Another, similar thing that I notice a lot of. Some people really seem to enjoy being the victim, acting like people who express opposing opinions are personally attacking them by doing so. It's the whole "But I guess everything I like is wrong, since I'm in the minority" response you see in threads, and the persecution complex is pretty over-the-top.
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Magnus the Magnificent
King Koopa
didn't want one.
I could write a book about what you don't know!
Posts: 12,451
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Post by Magnus the Magnificent on Dec 29, 2009 12:56:11 GMT -5
"Opinions are like assholes...everybody's got one."
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