.

Dear Foxy,

.

You wrote (to me) :

« The problem is that on some issues expertise or training is necessary for an opinion to have weight. »

And (to Josephus) :

« … the problem is that on some issues expertise training or life experience is necessary for an opinion to have weight »
.

In a democracy, every vote counts as one. No vote counts (or “weighs”) any more than any other vote. Each vote is deemed to be the expression of the opinion of each person eligible to vote.

Like religion, our political orientation is often inherited as part of our culture. According to a Scientific American article, a study published in 2014 in “Behavior Genetics” found that “the development of political attitudes depends, on average, about 60 percent on the environment in which we grow up and live and 40 percent on our genes” :

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-genes-of-left-and-right/

Forming an opinion on issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, LGBT rights, medically assisted procreation, surrogacy, euthanasia, the death penalty, covid vaccination, global warming, etc., is not just a question of researching the facts and consulting competent experts. Many people follow the recommendations of their spiritual leaders based on religious doctrine. Politically oriented people like the millions of followers of “Donald the Dictator” do whatever their political ideology dictates, irrespective of facts and expert opinion.

Democracy respects people’s religious beliefs and political freedoms and opinions. Authoritarian regimes such as Putin’s Russia, Xi Jinping’s China, Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, MBS’s Saudi Arabia, Erdogan’s Turkey, etc, (there are about 50 authoritarian regimes in the world today) do not. The citizens of all those countries must toe the line, either religiously or politically, or both.

If we cherish our (relative) freedom, we must defend our democracy and respect everybody’s point of view on an equal basis, knowing that, in the final count, it is the overall majority view that prevails.

Be that as it may.

Authoritarian rulers live in the delusion that they know what is best for their people.

I prefer democracy with all its imperfections.

.

.

Dear Foxy,

.

Allow me to add that democracy embraces every opinion indiscriminately, even if they are crazy, illogical, and ill-informed. Who is to decide if they are crazy, illogical, and ill-informed ? The people in power and their representatives ?

The people in power could use that as an excuse to silence and eliminate their political opponents. Perhaps lock them up in a lunatic asylum and silence them permanently with drugs.

A country that allows its people to freely express their crazy, illogical, and ill-informed opinions could be a sign that it is a good, healthy democracy.

I’m willing to bet that the probability that the majority of the population of any such country (Australia, for example) are crazy, illogical, and ill-informed is negligible.

Anyway, that’s my opinion.

.

Gentlemen,

Let me again attempt to explain what I was trying
to say:

Opinions can be misinformed.

Facts to some people are not important (to some only
volume and nastiness matters). That's why my suggestion
(and it was only a suggestion) to try being informed instead
of just opinionated. It was only a suggestion - a sort of
novel idea.

I realize why would one choose to actually learn something
when all around us we see people in top positions who don't
give a damn about truth, facts, accountability, morals,
ethics, or even kindness. But we should not sink to that
pathetic level.

It would be better if all of us tried to do our best to be
informed instead of just opinionated.

And that of course is only my informed opinion.

I meant well.

Dear Banjo,

I found an interesting article in Britannica:

" Perhaps the safest generalization that can be made
is that public opinion does not influence the details
of most government policies but it does set limits
within which policy makers must operate. That is,
public officials will usually seek to satisfy a
widespread demand, or at least take it into account in
their deliberations and they will usually try to avoid
decisions that they believe will be widely unpopular."

There's more at the following link:

http://www.britannica.com/topic/public-opinion/Public-opinion-and-government

Hi Foxy,

I've put foreword the rock solid evidence that the earth is flat, it was all in the tea leaves! Do you want to argue with that? So we have agreement on that one, great. What about the Moon of green cheese? Agree again, even more great. Its so good to have agreement.

p/s That's how the Usual Suspects want us to react to their nonsense notions on a whole range of subjects. The day I start agreeing with Hassy and Indy is the day they should take me out and shoot me.

Hi Paul,

I still haven't learned how to stop being defensive.
I can't keep quiet about
an injustice or a mistake and I still have this
feeling that I need to explain myself to others.
I guess it's part of my upbringing. My parents taught
me to always try to see the good in others and to stay
positive. But sometimes it's not always easy.