combatentropy
Veteran
These sayings spring up all over this forum --- and probably anywhere in life. And it bothers me.
Is one opinion as good as another?
Is it wrong to try to persuade someone of something you believe?
Is it impossible to reason about opinions? Are your opinions supported just by feelings and other things that wouldn't translate to anybody else's life?
First, let me say this. If someone says they don't want to argue about something, out of courtesy don't press them. When differing opinions meet, it by definition a conflict. Measurable, biological changes take effect. If you've had a stressful day, you may not be in the mood for more.
Now, before we talk about opinions, we should agree on what an opinion is. People often say that they're the opposite of facts, but in fact they are related. For example, it could be your opinion that the asteroid will hit the earth. Whether the asteroid hits the earth will become a fact. For now, you can just form an opinion, based on evidence.
But usually when people talk about opinion, they mean a subset of opinions, judgments. A judgment is a statement about whether something is right or wrong, good or bad. Many people say judgment is bad. This is called relativism. Relativism, though, is self-canceling:
Are you saying that it is wrong to say something is wrong?
Are you telling me that I shouldn't tell people what they should do?
Is it better not to say something is better?
Now I had better say this. I think it's safe to talk about the worth of things, like cameras, but not people. There are many reasons, but a practical one is that it is a sure way to have an unclear argument. When you start telling someone that they themselves are bad, you can bet their emotions will rise, and all chances of a calm, orderly argument are thrown out the window. In fact, attacking others is usually from laziness in discussing things. You disagree with someone but don't want to go through the effort of talking points, so you resort to an ad hominem attack. The moderators have forbidden such talk.
But judgment about things is fine and I think should be encouraged. Judgment about things, in fact, may very well be the activity of every thread here. That's why it's so frustrating when someone interjects, "Hey, we're just talking opinion here. Let's just talk about facts." The problem is just that judgment gets harder depending on what you're talking about. For example, an argument about which is the capital of Iceland, Cleveland or Reykjavik, is easily resolved and shouldn't last long. But an argument about which car is better is harder. There are ways in which one is better than the other, and vice versa. There are dozens, even hundreds, of things to consider, each with a different winner. If one car is overall better than the other, it may only be by a hair.
"It's a world of gray," someone often says. Yes, but decisions are binary. Which camera is best may seem muddy, but whether you buy it is a black-and-white decision. Either you will or you won't. Yes or no. That's where judgment comes in, and by necessity each of us must come to a judgment. Not deciding is in fact saying, "no," for now at least.
And decisions can be reversed. You may decide against buying the camera today, but next year you buy it. But people are coming here to get help deciding what they should do now. They have something in front of them, and they need to decide, for now, yes or no.
So, I would encourage debate about which camera is best: spirited but polite, reasoned, and respectful, and not someone coming in trying to pour cold water on it by saying it's just opinion. I think we would all have more fun and maybe even make better use of our money if we can have all-out discussions.
Further reading:
Logical fallacies. Read through these and keep them out of your discussions.
Taste for Makers, a good essay about why some designs are better than others.
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No. IMO.