If you say it is so, it is so. If you say it's bad, it's bad. If you say up is down and down is up, you're right.
An opinion, in the modern communication landscape, is now a fact, a fact that will be defended and argued about with no room for compromise. It's that sort of thing that is standard when discussing faith with many people; their view is embedded, but that's quite a deep and personal issue. The problem is that being entrenched is something of a default these days over the most trivial of things.
Example: I overheard a man in the pub the other day being asked if he had been in the previous night having an argument which he swore he hadn't, but that was not good enough for the questioner, he was adamant that it was him, and round and round they went. They were still at it when I left.
Then there is the case of when I know for a fact that a certain film starred a certain actor and the person who asked me about said film is convinced that I am wrong. It's not abut takig someone's word about it, its about being incapable of saying "Oh, I must be wrong then, thanks for clearing that up". Oh no, why agree when you can argue!
Naturally, Social media is the Ground Zero of arguing about opinions, its not only the Ground Zero, its the Eye Of The Hurricane it's the Monty Python Argument sketch of arguing.
Opinions aren't facts necessarily, that's simple enough isn't it? We are all entitled to our opinions from sensible to downright inane and healthy discourse is exactly what it says it is; healthy, but when we as a species cannot reach accord, use empathy or simply agree to disagree then we are in trouble, and maybe because there is so much information that can be accessed everyone thinks they're an expert.
The irony is that generally the louder the discourse the less the speaker has to say that has any meaning. Then again, maybe I'm just too old for arguing.
