Opinionated

It seems that almost everyone feels free to express strong opinions recently, mainly online. It does not matter the consequences or if and when it is appropriate. People just want to have a say about everything that is going on. Not that strong opinions or peculiar views did not exist before, but any news or information is setting fire to an unprecedented debate, which is good in a sense of giving people opportunities to have a say as well as highlighting polemical issues or sensitive ones. The intriguing factor about expressing too much and too often is that it has been triggering not a healthy debate, on the contrary, it has causing disturbing arguments or useless discussions. There is no wrongdoing unless there is no harm.

Finding an assertive way of expressing strong opinions is a perfect tool if people are really interested in a constructive debate to set the path to something prolific or of relevant implications. People who are also slightly less opinionated on sorts of questions or have no opinion at all about it are engaging in fierce debates. That has been a problem, for sure, giving the factor that people with attitude are opinionated in an unselfconsciously way and doing so are also being prejudiced, intolerant, disrespectful and even fanatical. In addition, once this tone is established, the offenses, the word war and the clash of beliefs have been the standard, a bad one. In a debate flooded with brash and opinionated statements, we can expect reactionary responses or positions, that is due to more people and issues were exposed directly to national or international cultures online.

On the other hand, because of such exposure the coverage of themes became much more critical and opinionated as well as memorable. Needless to say, that is crucial to be able to segment fake versus real news. This has been a constant concern, factual versus opinionated style of presentation, and it seems that is not always an easy task to accomplish. At the same time, everyone is under pressure from increasingly opinionated public.

I guess this quote summarise very well the scenario: “The world is divided into the opinionated and the weak, and possibly a third category, those who are both opinionated and weak” (Hansard archive). I am afraid the third category mentioned above is the one believing that their own ideas are the only correct ones. Engaging in political discussions, ethical debates and believing that they do possess relatively high levels of knowledge of anything and everything. So, they talk and never accept different views on any issue. Individuals high in this trait simply have a say and immediately walk away from opposite ones or keep saying their truth until the opponents get tired. Before being opinionated, one must be insightful, argumentative, skillful and respectful if wishes to become a compelling guide.

by Ale Madia