“You are not entitled to your opinion.  You are entitled to your informed opinion.  No one is entitled to be ignorant,” Harlan Ellison.  I love this.  I can amend this to say that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but they aren’t entitled to share it if it isn’t true (misinformation) nor are they entitled to demand others believe as they do.  The point of discourse is to arrive at an informed conclusion with each side contributing knowledge that builds on a premise to form a big picture.  We’ve degraded the purpose of thought and discussion to people needing to hear the sound of their own voice.  We’ve made intelligent discussion around facts “aggressive.”  People tend to value their feelings over fact and it’s become more important to feel good than it is to make informed decisions.  With all of this being said, it isn’t necessary to “muse and ponder” all day or to “wax poetic” on different ideas like philosophers before us.  But we do need to reach a common ground and that can only happen if we are willing to discuss the facts. 

Everyone has opinions and everyone feels things in relation to specific topics.  There are things that have a greater impact on certain areas of our lives so we may prioritize them over other things and there are things that have no bearing whatsoever on us.  So here is a little rule of thumb: if we haven’t taken the time to discover the truth and consider the facts, if we haven’t experienced whatever it is we’re talking about, if we weren’t present to witness some revelation on the matter—our voice isn’t needed in that moment.  If we aren’t contributing something of value to the circumstance, we should stay silent.  The more we allow feeling to be portrayed as fact, the more out of touch we become as we stretch to accommodate everyone’s feelings.  When we have a platform to share (and we all do now thanks to social media) it’s up to us to use it responsibly.  I’m not saying people don’t make mistakes even with due diligence and I’m not saying that we can’t simply have fun.  But I am saying we need to be more aware of what comes out of our mouths.

This world rushes to be in the know as fast as possible.  Time is money in so many regards that we no longer seem to care whether or not what we say is helpful, kind, or relevant—we just have to get the information out there.  We want to be the first to talk about whatever situation or scenario is out there and everything is out there for people to see now.  It isn’t conducive to finding the truth. How often have we gone back and corrected ourselves after digging more?  Shock value seems to be the way and we are creating waves of long term discord and unrealistic expectations and beliefs.  We need to hold ourselves to a higher degree of accountability—be clear on what we say and what we mean and align our actions with our words.  No one gets to remain ignorant and claim they know the ways of the world.  The ironic part is that most people are pretty savvy with recognizing when people aren’t being truthful or when they don’t really know what they’re talking about.  I know I can sense when I’m not fully informed on something.  So if we are aware of this, then we can break the habit and start ensuring we know enough about something to have the conversation or we are willing to learn.  Ignorance isn’t always bliss—sometimes it’s dangerous.