My Opinion Doesn't Matter

A common reply to criticism of President Donald Trump is: “That’s your opinion,” which inherently implies that other opinions are just as valid.  With that phrase, Trump’s supporters seek to remove all the damage of those criticisms, so they can continue their own beliefs about the President.  There is at least one smaller problem with that approach, and at least one very large flaw with the claim. 

First, there is the issue that not all opinions are of equal value.  For example, let’s assume that Person A has a greater-than-average intelligence, that he is highly educated in the fields of government, politics, history, and economics; that he has made it a point to keep up with the news from a variety of sources, while keeping in mind those sources that have shown to be reliable vs. those that have been shown to regularly spread falsehoods and unreliable reports, and that he is generally open-minded.  A rational person would therefore expect that Person A is quite well informed, and that his opinion on Trump should be valued.  Right?

In contrast, assume that Person B is on the lower end of the intelligence scale.  (This is not to insult him, but it’s just a fact that all people aren’t created equal.)  Anyway, Person B didn’t get far in school for whatever reasons, and doesn’t know much about government, politics, history, or economics; he’s never found much value in watching or reading the news, and generally doesn’t know much about what’s going on outside of his own private world.  He tends to believe what people, especially his friends, tell him, and gets any news that he learns from social media and TV talk shows that have been proven to spread false and unreliable information on a regular basis. 

As they’ve been described above, it should not be a matter of “opinion” that Person A has a better understanding of American politics today than Person B does.  Opinion refers to how a person feels or believes about something, and may have little to do with the actual facts.  A bizarre trend these days is people who claim that their feelings and beliefs, whether connected to reality or not, are just as valuable as someone else’s feelings and beliefs that are grounded in facts.  Give me a fucking break!  So even as people will still disagree about whose opinion is better on a particular issue, we should be able to agree that there are a great many cases of some opinions being more worthwhile than others.  At least those of us living in the real world should.

But fine - you don't think my opinions are worth a hill of beans.  OK, that's your right.  In reality, though, most of what I present in these essays are not matters of opinion.  They are facts; things that you can verify for yourself, things that can't (or shouldn't!) be disputed.

You are entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts.  This is a common saying these days, and for good reason.  The whole paradigm of Trump populism is characterized by the immense abuse of facts.  It is a simple matter to show literally hundreds of untruths (lies, partial lies, misrepresentations, statements unsupported by facts, etc.) that have been put forth as facts and truths by the Trump crowd.  A critical point: These things can be proven false beyond a reasonable doubt to anyone open to the accepted principles of science and logic. 

Just one example: In November, 2017, Trump boasted of his “tax bill for the middle-class.”  The problem is that even as the conservative Fortune magazine made clear, almost all benefits of that bill went to businesses and the wealthy, especially after the first couple of years.  http://fortune.com/2017/11/06/fact-checking-trumps-claims-about-the-gop-middle-class-tax-cut/

But great gobs of gullible Americans don’t bother to look beyond the headline.  The falsehood grows a life of its own over time and “Trump’s middle-class tax cuts” becomes accepted, such as when Hugh Hewitt listed “the huge tax cut” among the President’s great achievements in the SDUT on New Year’s Eve, 2018.  Do you think he was referring to the huge breaks given to businesses and the wealthy?  https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/sd-hugh-hewitt-trump-learn-from-nixon-utcol-utak-20181231-story.html

But again – this is just one of countless falsehoods coming from Trump and his minions.  Remember the 10% raise he gave the military in late-December?  Except it was actually 2.6%.  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/fact-check-trump-brags-troops-about-10-percent-pay-raise-n952336
The pictures of the huge crowds at Trump's inauguration?  Oops - I mean the pictures that the White House doctored to make the crowds look bigger.    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-inauguration-crowd-photos-sean-spicer-edited-barack-obama-a8526001.html

Few members of the Trump block are aware of how the narrative they operate under is so stunningly unconnected from reality, as a result of limiting their news sources and having no interest in questioning those sources.  So untruths of various types determine their views, yet their opinions are as valid as any other person’s opinions – they believe.  Except that they’re not.  A falsehood is not an opinion; a fact that has been proven to be true is not an opinion.   

From this side of the gap, the problem seems insurmountable.  As someone who fits the description found in the 2^nd paragraph, but who is also firmly committed to analyzing things in a logical way, I’ve found it is usually impossible to get the other side to even understand a rational argument.  They do not, so very often, know the difference between a fact and an opinion; do not know how to evaluate the truth of a statement; cannot assess the credibility of a source; and constantly get side-tracked from the logical steps of examining an assertion and can’t make their way back to the point.  So you lay it out for them, whatever the issue may be, with facts, evidence, a logical progression from point A to point Z – and they’re just lost. 

In the end, it’s just: “But, but Hillary's emails!” and no progress is possible.