Ah, opinions. As the classic saying goes, "opinions are like a**holes, everyone's got them and most of them stink." Now, it seems funny to have an opinion article on opinions, yet here we are.
Everyone has an opinion about everything; a movie, television show, election, celebrities, if you can name it someone somewhere has an opinion. It can be a firm "this is my opinion" or as unsure as "I don't really know?" But there's something that seems to be a universal belief;
There are right and wrong opinions, but that couldn't be further from the truth.
There are many situations where this majority versus minority opinion comes into play; is Tom Holland a better Spider-Man than Tobey Maguire? Who's the best starter Pokemon; Squirtle, Charmander or Bulbasaur? Which has better shows, Hulu or Netflix? Apple or Android? The list is never ending.
In almost every situation where there's a debate between opinions, there seems to be a "right opinion" and a "wrong opinion", where the majority opinion is right and the minority is wrong when we look at it from everyone's opinion. But if we focus on two people discussing their opinion, both people will believe that there opinion is right and the other is wrong.
But saying that someone has a right or wrong opinion is actually incorrect in of itself.
In order to better understand where this is going lets look at what an opinion actually is.
An opinion, according to Merriam-Webster, is a view, judgement or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter. A generally held view.
An opinion is basically the way someone feels about something. According to Phys.org our opinions influence and are influenced by our surroundings and what we interact with.
However, there are situations where this could not be the case. You and everyone you know can think Robert Downey Jr. did an amazing job at playing Iron Man, but you personally believe that he didn't. In this situation your opinion wasn't formed based on your surroundings, and the same thing can happen when it comes to major beliefs such as religion.
You can come from a family who are devout Christians, they can make you go to church and read the Bible, but you can grow up to not practice religion or not agree with Christian views. So it's safe to assume that not all of our opinions are influenced by our surroundings.
Since an opinion is a personal belief, it can't be wrong. Now, before I lose you, I'm going to explain why.
A fact is something that has actual existence, actual occurrence, a piece of information presented as having objective reality, a truth. A fact is something that is true and has some sort of backing to it. An example of a fact is Robert Downey Jr. plays Iron Man. We can go onto IMDb and see the cast listing with his name under Iron Man.
An opinion would be Robert Downey Jr. did a good job at playing Iron Man. Someone can back their opinion with reviews or how much the movie made. At the end of the day you can prove that he did play the role of Iron Man, but you can't prove that he did a good job. It all depends on how the person feels.
There are certain situations where a persons opinion can be "wrong". An example of this would be "that boy is wearing pink shoes, so he must be gay." That would be considered a wrong opinion. However, it's not even that the opinion is wrong, but the opinion is misinformed.
If someone grew up having drilled into them that pink is for girls and only boys who are gay wear pink, it would make sense that they would have that opinion. At the end of the day, their opinion is misinformed, but it is also still valid.
Here's the big question, how can an opinion be misinformed but also valid?
It all goes back to how opinions are formed. They are made based off what we have been exposed to. If a person has an opinion based off of misinformation that they have been exposed to, their opinion is still valid because they formed their opinion based off their current knowledge.
An opinion can be changed. Once that person learns that color doesn't coincide with someone's sexuality, their opinion about a boy wearing pinks shoes being gay can be changed. If a person has an opinion based on misinformation, their opinion can be changed.
However, there are certain situations where opinions are formed where there's no way to have misinformation.
There's no way to determine if Tobey or Tom is the best Spider-Man, if Hulu has better than Netflix, or which starter Pokemon is the best. In many situations, opinions are just that, opinions. Yet those types of situations can cause major conflict between people if the topic is controversial, much like Halle Bailey being cast as Ariel for the upcoming live action The Little Mermaid. Some people say she's perfect for the role, and if others think that she shouldn't have been cast because she doesn't look like Ariel, their racist. Others say that they feel their beloved character should be represented as she was, so they should have found an actress who looks like the original Ariel.
At the end of the day, opinions are just that, opinions. If they're misinformed, yes they can gain new information and change their opinion, but not all opinions can be changed by new information. Sometimes people believe what they want to believe and those opinions are still valid, even if you don't agree with them.
