Sometimes I'm wrong. I usually notice it right away (or have it pointed out to me,) and admit it, and try to learn from it. And sometimes people in general are wrong. It happens. But being wrong is not the same as having a valid, alternative viewpoint. "The Civil War wasn't about slavery" is not an opinion; it is an inaccurate statement. You can't coddle people and say "oh, it's just as true." No, it's not. It's wrong. There is no controversy about it, except ones made up by people trying to push an agenda or protect themselves. If you look at the facts, the truth is clear.
That applies to many other issues. People have incorrect ideas, often based on inaccurate (or inadequate) information, and yet they insist that they are right. Or, at least, that their opinion deserves as much weight as anyone else's (even if you point out the inaccuracies in the data they used to form their opinion.)
Maybe I should be a fact-checker; maybe that would be a career change for me. Because, seriously, dumbass opinions bother me. People are free to have them. I have, and have had, a few. But I do try to base my opinions on facts. If I find out my facts are wrong, I rethink my opinions. I see so much based on inaccurate facts. This country was not, for example, founded on Christian principles, and is not a Christian nation. So many inaccuracies, typically among conservatives but also liberals. We can all look at the same facts and come to different conclusions about them. But when the facts you start with are incorrect, and you base opinions on them, it's dangerous. And ignoring the facts, or refusing to look into them, is just stupid, and willfully ignorant.
This is a serious problem for society, and our country. We have stopped thinking. We reject facts we dislike, not just opinions we disagree with. How can we move forward if we don't understand the past or present, and have no facts we can at least agree on in order to debate about?
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