Oh, I get how this works.JamesStone said:If the facts that support an opinion are wrong, than the OPINION IS WRONG. How is this a different concept to grasp? Nowhere in the dictionary does it say ANYTHING about an opinion being by definition impossible to attribute a True/False value.crimson5pheonix said:So the facts you base your opinion on can be right or wrong? Good thing that's what I've been arguing. But the opinion itself isn't right or wrong.JamesStone said:crimson5pheonix said:You don't have popular opinion, the dictionary doesn't back you up as much as you think it does, and logic isn't on your side.JamesStone said:snip
It's funny you claim your idea is backed by realitiy when popular opinion, the dictionary, and basic logic stand against you. Also, no one's turning this into a GG discussion, it's a very very simple question. Someone claims GG is a harrassment campaign and nothing else. Literally nothing else. Yeah, that's a good example.
I hereby decry that it is my opinion that Gamergate are nothing but powerless thugs that like to harrass women but are too cowardly to do it face to face in fear said women might fight back.
I can't be wrong, you see. It's my opinion. I can't be right, true, but I can also not be wrong (which makes me, what? A banana?).
I'm just saying that bringing up GG is a very easy way to make the discussion about GG, as evidenced by the fact that you just turned the rest of your post into a post about GG.
In any case, holding an opinion does not make you right or wrong, correct. It does not make you a banana either. It merely means you hold an opinion.
But here, since we're on books, let's look up opinion in the thesaurus. http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/opinion?s=t
Synonyms: Assassment, assumption, feeling, judgment, mind, view
Antonyms: FACT, REALITY, PROOF
It almost sounds like opinions are separate from the proof/disproof paradigm.
By the way, nice job handpicking the synonyms that agree with your accessment. You left out, however: Conjecture, suspision, theorem, sentiment, speculation, supposition, thesis, imagining, assessment, assumption, IE, things that can be right or wrong.
It's almost as if an opinion HAS no inherit value by itself, but it can be right or wrong based on the things that constitute it.
I DID actually address the original GG example and then said stay away from GG because we don't need to bring that particular heated discussion into this debate. It's already tangential enough to the thread without a bunch of bickering over yet another debate.And the reason you aren't going to address the GG example is the same reason you handpicked the synonims that agree with your hypothesis: because you're a demagoge that tries to make up new meanings for pre-existing words in order to fortify your own argument.
Only 2 of those were brought up before. The answer is the same as I gave a long ass time ago; as opinions they are not wrong, merely unpopular. And dangerous if important enough people hold them.Here's a few other examples you completely failed to address because they'd force you to admit that, at the very least, your OPINION has a lot of holes in it:
"All [insert racial slang here] deserve nothing but torture and summary execution"
"Gamergate is nothing but a bunch of powerless wannabe bullies who exist to harrass women"
"Women are only fit to be housewifes or prostitutes"
"Homossexuals should be chemically castrated"
Feel free to claim these aren't wrong because they're opinions.
Here's a demonstration:
"I believe the Earth is flat"
By analysing the data available to us since Phoenician's time, we can conclude that the Earth is in fact spherical/elipsed. As such, the opinion is wrong.
What IS INDEED TRUE is that most opinions are based around more than a singular fact, and analysing the various conjectures and facts that allow a person to create an opinion about a complex topic is a very hard task, which makes it a fool's erand to immediately dismiss the opinion as wrong, or immediately laund it as right. It is, however, possible to attribute truthfulness or its abscence to any opinion, as long as the data behind it can be analyzed.
Another demonstration:
"I believe God exists" - Analyzing the data behind this opinion allows one to reach little conclusion about the veracity of the facts supporting it, so we cannot attribute an inherit right/wrong value.
"Gamergate are nothing but thugs" - By mere observation one can conclude this statement is wrong, and so are the facts that support it. As such, the OPINION is wrong.
"I think we should have stricter gun control because nobody knows how to take care of a gun anyway."
I shall start using this argument against people who want greater gun control since the statement "nobody knows how to take care of a gun anyway" is factually wrong which makes the opinion "I think we should have stricter gun control" wrong as well.
Does this sound right?
Oh, and "I believe the Earth is flat" is not an opinion. It's a (wrong) factual statement nestled in a sentence to make it sound like an opinion.