Now that I've got your attention... Over the course of the past few months, I have seen a disturbing pattern appear in my interaction with the internet. After months of close analysis, this is what I have found: individuals are not allowed to have an opinion. Before you go running to the back button, hear me out. I'm not saying that only the people who agree with me should be able to have an opinion. I have to say that because I have noticed that the people who attack others for having an opinion and no factual evidence ALWAYS have a different opinion. Yes, having factual evidence to back up your opinion is a great idea. But the fact remains that if someone has an opinion, they are in no way obligated to provide evidence to support their opinion, unless they are making an argument based on their opinion.
An opinion is this: the beliefs of a single person based on that individual's experiences and observations of a given situation and/or topic.
A fact: a non-deniable stated truth that has sufficient support from science or experiences of individuals.
You'll notice that both fact and opinion can be supported by personal experience. The difference is this: opinions are personal. Facts that are based on experience are facts to individuals, but not necessarily others. That being said, an opinion-based fact is only true for the individual who is proclaiming their experience as fact.
An example of an opinion is this: The best color in the world is orange.
In this case, I stated that orange was the best color because I think it is. In no way am I obligated to give evidence to support my opinion (though evidence would make my argument stronger), nor am I required to explain my rationale behind this statement.
An example of a fact is this: The sky is blue. Yes, the sky appears blue because of the way light is scattered when it enters the atmosphere. This is a scientifically proven fact that no one can deny. In addition, unless one has a visual impairment, the sky appears blue to every one. I can say that the sky is baby blue and you can say that the sky is royal blue. These are two very different shades of blue, but never the less, they are blue. In this case, the various shades of blue we perceive the sky as being are based on our personal perceptions of the world. Those perceptions are facts to us as individuals, but may not appear true to others.
To keep it short and sweet, every person has the freedom to believe whatever they want to believe, regardless of whether you think they should believe a given belief or not. If you think otherwise, you are part of a massive problem; a problem aimed at taking away individual freedom. The next time someone says, "this is what I BELIEVE", you have no right to treat that OPINION as a FACT. Likewise, if someone makes a claim that they are actually putting forth as being factual, then that person is obligated to provide substantial evidence if asked. We all have different opinions of every issue, because we all perceive the world differently. You can't change what is fact to one person and not another based on personal experience. For example, if I went to a doctor and she was rude to me, but three days later you see the same doctor and it was the best appointment you've ever had, then that bad experience is a fact to me but not to you. My experience is valid enough for the factual statement, not all individuals will be satisfied by this particular doctor, to be supported. The existence of opinions and experiences is why we use words such as most, many, few, and majority, just to name a few, when discussing surveys and when making claims about not scientifically provable ideas and such (think about the example with the doctor I just mentioned).
The line between fact and opinion can be blurry, I can't deny that. What is important is that we all realize that necessity of recognizing fact and opinion, and the reasoning behind fact.
Please recognize that this is an issue to deep to discuss in one article, and I left out several aspects of this matter because inputting all sides of this matter into the article would require me writing a book. This issue itself is an opinion-based matter, so take that as you will.
While I used my title as an attention-grabber, you should know that it isn't entirely false. To many, your opinion does not matter for one reason or another. I won't go into that reasoning because that is another issue, but I'm sure you could name a few reasons. Suffice it to say that while opinions are important, know when to use them, and when you need to make exceptionally strongly supported factual statements. While the line is blurry we need to change that. We need to change that because we live in an era where opinions are confused as facts. Facts can be opinions, but opinions, at least in the eyes of others, will not, and cannot be facts.
I did not use any outside sources for this article, so I guess you could say that this is my personal opinion.
