Having An Opinion Matters: My Thoughts on Opinions, Twitter and Disagreements

In a week where Elon Musk’s $44 billion (yes, with a b!) bid was accepted to buy Twitter and half the population of the social media site has gone into meltdown about it, it seems timely to discuss why having an opinion matters, whether you agree with it or not.

News Flash: Elon Musk Buying Twitter is Okay

We live in an unusual time where people’s personal opinions can be shared to millions of people with the press of a “tweet” or “post” button. You don’t have to go back two decades to reach a time where people would have told you to stop being ridiculous if you had been bold enough to suggest that as a concept. Furthermore, when the significant majority of the current global population were born, all the opinions you heard were generally from the news you chose to read or the people you chose to spend your time around. As a result, you were mostly surrounded by opinions that aligned more or less with your view of the world. However, since the launch of social media, that has been thrown out of the window and changed the entire landscape of how you consume information. It is, therefore, logical to suggest that our society hasn’t fully evolved to cope with this state of widely available opinion.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, or have somehow avoided social media entirely, then you, like me, will likely come across at least one post on social media that you don’t agree with every single day. Perhaps it’s a Donald Trump tweet (oh, you can be sure he’ll have his account reinstated) or something your bigoted relative has posted on Facebook, the point is, we’re not strangers to coming across controversial or anger inducing posts. But the interesting thing is, if I were to ask you to give me an example of one of these posts, every person reading this would give me a totally different response, which is entirely the point of this blog.

So instead, I’ll ask you this. If none of us can agree on what is controversial or wrong, how could we possibly arrive at a fair conclusion on which opinions are reasonable and valid, and which are horrendous and should be suppressed?

Actually, pretty easily.

Opinions Are Important

As you’ve probably gathered, I believe that having an opinion on a topic is a right. You can call it freedom of speech but it is fundamentally the same thing. Unfortunately, the term “freedom of speech” has become synonymous with justifying horrendous statements. I, however, believe that freedom of speech, or the right to have an opinion, comes with limitations. I like to summarize these limitations under one phrase “thou shalt not be a dickhead”. It ties in nicely to one of my core beliefs — be respectful to everyone, always.

The other element to factor in is societal progress. If we can’t have different opinions and discuss them without being drawn into a shouting match, how can we hope to move society forward in a positive way? As a rule of thumb, progress comes through ideas that no-one has thought of before. It takes someone brave enough to have an opinion, share that opinion and be challenged on it for us to make change happen.

To conclude and to put it simply so there can be no misunderstanding — opinions are important. Opinions open the door to discussions and discussions lead to societal progress. But you can have your opinion without being an arse about it. You can, and you should, be respectful with your opinions and in return, everyone should your respect your right to have one.

So remember, let your Great-Auntie Doris have her opinion, engage with her in an open conversation, but remember, just because you disagree doesn’t make either of you more right than the other (unless you have scientific proof, in which case, Great-Auntie Doris can shut the f*ck up).