On Friday, February 26, 2021 at 8:34:47 PM UTC-5, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 26 Feb 2021 20:12:26 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 2/26/2021 5:54 PM, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 26 Feb 2021 14:05:38 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 2/26/2021 1:36 PM, AMuzi wrote:
On 2/26/2021 12:05 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:

"The major failing of the social media is that people with no
experience and no education believe that they have a right to an opinion
as valid as those that do have experience and education."

Yes, they do indeed. You got a problem with that?

Of course everybody has a right to an opinion. But it's nonsense to say
that all opinions are equally valid.

The astonishing fact here is that Tom routinely portrays himself as
having "experience and education" leading to more knowledge than anyone
else, whether he's talking about medicine, history, theology, genetics,
physics, economics, politics, biology, engineering, bicycles or brake
fluid.

All that despite dropping out of high school, getting no post-secondary
education and being unable to hold any one job for more than three years.

I think that perhaps the problem is the definition of "opinion". After
all the dictionary has it that "opinion" is "a personal belief or
judgment that is not founded on proof or certainty".

Based on that interpretation then all opinions are equal in the sense
that "all men are created equal"

Sorry, I can't buy that. For one thing, Jefferson may have written that
all men are _created_ equal, in the sense of their inherent rights. But
I doubt he would have said that all men have equal wisdom, knowledge,
skill, etc.

And based on that, I doubt he would say all opinions are equal. I
believe there are opinions that ought to be judged erroneous even if
absolute disproof is still pending.

In fact, isn't the notion that "my" opinions are better then "your"
opinions because I went to school, or I ride a bicycle, or I'm a
Republican or I'm a Democrat just another way of saying "Well, I'm
better than you because..."?

But I do believe that certain people are better than certain other
people. I'm too conservative to say that what you do or don't do has no
effect on your personal value.
Well, if you want to get into the foibles of the Constitution it is
probably true that when the writers proclaims that "all men are
created equally" they meant only white, Protestant, folks and
certainly not black folks, nor Catholic folk for that matter :-)

And there was enough debate about that to result in actual wording in the constitution the 3/5 compromise.

But as I said, opinions are simply "a personal belief or judgment that
is not founded on proof or certainty" and you are trying to claim that
somehow education or knowledge effects them.

It most certainly does. Your opinion is framed by your life experience. Your education is an integral component of that. Every opinion is valid, the difference is if you can rationally defend it. To that point, kunich and jute has yet to be able to defend any of their opinions rationally. In that context, their opinions (especially those opinions they incorrectly call facts) are of considerably less value than the vast majority of others appearing in this forum. It isn't due to their level of education, but their individual aggregated life experience.


But is it true? I would refer you to the three Abrahamic religions,
all of whom claim to worship the same God and all slaughter each other
in the name of that God.

Again, opinions incorrectly called facts.