Thoughts On Opining

I don’t like to post about politics or what not on social media. I have my opinions and you’re welcome to yours. That being said, I haven’t mentioned the Occupy Wall Street movement. But I follow the news and know what’s going on. Not completely everything, of course. Being a New Yorker, it’s in my backyard. Recently, I talked with someone about it, also a local, who is completely clueless to it. They are a friend in their mid 20’s. Their reaction was “Oh, they’re just in the way and wasting our tax dollars”. They know nothing about it yet that is their opinion. I started asking them where they get their facts from, do they follow it, etc. NOPE. Just glanced at a news blurb and heard people talking about it. Amazing. This is probably what so many people think. I may not completely agree with how some of the movement is going but I do know that a proper protest IS about being in the way. It’s about peacefully disrupting things so people take notice. And hopefully that notice will lead to change. Doesn’t always work but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an important idea. 

This person also has no clue as to what exactly their tax dollars do. (I’d argue that is true for most of us). As I mentioned that to them, they got quiet as I think they realized that they had no idea what they were talking about. (Sorry for the pronoun game, I don’t want to call the person out as a male or female). 

Mostly my point is to have an informed opinion. Not just hearsay. You can absolutely be on one side or the other. If after this person I chatted with paid a little more attention to the facts and still had a similar opinion to the one they haphazardly threw out at me, then fine. Or, you can just not care. If you don’t, then you can’t just cavalierly throw out “It’s stupid” or even “It’s the greatest thing ever”. Be informed. THEN make an opinion. 

Or continue to live in ignorant bliss.