Opiniongasms

"No, I will not respect your opinion. I will only respect your right to hold that opinion" 

 We stand at the juncture of society which does not put much work into discerning an informed opinion from an ‘opinion’. The credit goes to the post-modernist commodification of knowledge, a world of ‘alternatives’ and ‘perspectives’ which hold the same amount of water. These attitudes have even crept up in the academic spheres, which have stalled our progress in some of the crucial areas. One such example, which has lingered quite long is that of consciousness and human brain, as many in philosophy and psychology fear the 'biologizing' of mind.

Opinions are not created equal. It is a futile business, or rather a ludicrous one. It’s true that knowledge is uncertain, but some ideas are obviously more well-grounded in research and based on educated lines of thinking. The whole scheme of “open-mindedness”, which put in other words, implies that the opinion of a streetwalker and that of an academician counts as equal, is probably the most preposterous and even harmful proposition someone has ever made.

Of course, you are entitled to your opinion. No one can stop you from thinking or expressing, but to expect that your opinion holds weight and is to be taken seriously in matters of sophisticated discussions is a different realm altogether. People often confuse entitlement to an opinion with the opinion itself, which stems from their inability to understand critical thinking and dialectical reasoning.

In learning and intelligence theories of psychology, we know this phenomenon as the ‘reflective’ scale, with people moving on from the I-just-know-what-I-know stage to the all-opinions-counts-equal ladder, and further higher up at the “I know it because of conclusive evidence and informed guesses” as they sharpen their tools of thinking.

This witty depiction, made by SMBC probably hits the nail. 

The consequences of "open-mindedness" under the disguise of tolerating people's opinions no matter how outdated, or ill-supported they are, manifests itself in terms of popular quackery, pseudo-science and religious debates which basically presents the scientific opinion as a mere "opinion", just one in the alternatives' sea. And, its one of the reasons, why liberals have failed to counter fanatics of their religion which continue to find asylum behind the "respect-my-opinion" wall and gain support. So, this obviously has serious and practical implications for how our conversations turn out and how we progress as a society. So, no, I will not respect your opinion. I will only respect your educated opinion.