First of all, people would take way more care about their opinions. Instead of keeping them unchanged for years, they might check them out at least weekly. “Hm, I feel a little bit triggered today, let’s check on my opinions down there, I might have gotten some opinion chlamydia. And I’m not even aware of that”.
Second, they will think twice before waving it – the opinion – publicly. There is a certain level of consensus required to show up your dick, and the clarity of conversations we have these days will greatly benefit from more consensus and clarity. Sometimes I feel like people are waving their opinions without even knowing what to do with them, so to speak. And they do this, because, well, everybody is entitled to an opinion. That is true, we all have the right to have opinions just about everything. Just as true as almost every man is born with a dick (see how I try to avoid comments about gender identity here? I wrote “almost” every man).
But just because you are born with a dick, this doesn’t automatically mean you should wave it incessantly in front of everybody.
I mean, it’s ok if someone actually asks for it and really likes it and you both engage in a consensual, opinionated back and forth. Great. Enjoy!
But if your opinion is not required, nobody asks for it, and you still try to force it onto other people, well, that should be perceived just as abusive as rape.
If you made it this far, I guess there’s something that made you think about it.
And you’re not here for porn, either.
So here comes the serious part.
Opinion: The Final Frontier
The world we live in today is almost frictionless in terms of information propagation. If you want to pass something along, you have a plethora of means: email, instant messaging, social media, video, dark social media, you name it. Your opinions about everything can be made public almost without any effort.
That simplicity, that easiness made us behave like we are somehow “entitled” to show up and take a stand about pretty much everything. Which, alas, although possible, is wrong. Not every possible thing is right for you. It’s possible to jump off of a building, for instance, but I highly doubt this would be right for you.
We may have opinions about everything, but we seldom have expertise on more than a handful of topics (if at all). And while opinions are a good way to make sense of our own world, expertise is what makes us useful to others. If we do not have expertise on a topic, we’re talking in vain. Or, worse, we lead people astray, we add more noise to the overwhelming confusion that clutters our times.
In this ubiquitous confusion, we equate “opinion” with “expertise”. Just because I’m allowed to talk, I demand that my opinion should be treated like expertise, like something necessary for the Earth to keep revolving around the Sun. Such a waste of time! Such a deceiving form of abuse of the technological advancements we’re so lucky to witness.
We’re living in a magical world. Like literally, just 3-400 years ago, our would would have been assimilated to magic, if only because we can send messages instantaneously everywhere on Earth and beyond, and yet, we use these magical tools to lecture others about vaccines, politics, white versus black, or endless debates about, really, nothing.
Opinions have become the mantra of the entitlement. I have an opinion, and you should listen to me, because of that. Even more, my opinion is “truer” than your opinion. Because I said so.
Now, imagine what would happen if people would really start treating their opinions like they treat their dicks.
The silence.
The stillness of a world in which people will expose their opinions just as much as they expose their genitals. And they will only expose them in a consensual, balanced way.
Imagine a world in which all those annoying social media wannabe influencers, talking every time, on every topic, to anyone, will get way more refined dismissals.
Instead of “You should have really kept your mouth shout on this matter, you idiot”, they will be gently pushed away with a more subtle: “You know, your opinion looked way better when you were keeping it inside your pants”.
Although some may disagree that this is actually a more refined dismissal.
P.S. If this post triggered you, I recommend you to look here, on my blog, where you may find plenty more posts that will trigger you.
