Hello, all!
So there is something on my mind as of right now that I would like to talk about, and it's a little thing I'd like to call "having an opinion." While I am discussing this, I will say in advance that no names shall be mentioned because I do not personally want to attack anyone or have anyone feel like they are being attacked.
Early this morning, I posted a picture of one of our USA dollar coins that did not have "In God We Trust" written on it. There was a nice mixture of comments stating opinions about the matter, and I really enjoyed reading to them and responding to them with how I view things in comparison. I think that it's healthy to discuss controversial topics because it allows for a new perspective.
However, there are a few things I'd like to address that have happened to me in the past, one of them being that unless you are open-minded and willing to listen, you should not partake in these conversations. I understand that my viewpoint might be extremely different from yours, but it does not help if you decide that your way is the only way and then attack me for having the wrong idea. There was one night that I posted something related to Justin Bieber's fan base, and one of my friends took it the wrong way and thought that I was attacking Bieber. He/she proceeded to verbally attack my post by accusing me of saying things that I never even mentioned in my status, and he/she did not take the time to look at the blog post I had typed up concerning the situation (in which case I actually defended Bieber). After a long string of comments and explanation, he/she apologized to me. There are too many people in this generation that are only concerned with being right about something instead of sitting down and actually having a calm discussion about it. I've learned that if you listen to someone and take what they have into consideration, a lot of the time, you will learn something new or gain a new perspective on things. It isn't about winning. It's about sharing. That also goes for situations like above when I mentioned Bieber. If that person had taken the time to ask me what I meant instead of accusing me for saying things that were apparently "implied" (although, I had not been trying to imply anything), the conversation would have gone a lot smoother, and I would not have been attacked. I'm a pretty open-minded person, so I never mean anything bad by what I say when I am stating an opinion. If it is taken that way, then I'll admit that I probably did a shitty job of wording it. We're all human and we make mistakes without meaning to. But I never see a reason why anyone should get fired up about what others think and believe.
Secondly, I think it's bullshit when people tell me that someone is wrong for having an opinion. Opinions, in my eyes, are never "wrong" to have. You can disagree with one and say that it isn't something that you think is right, but it's never okay to tell someone that he or she is wrong for thinking something different than you. I had posted a status about gun control after the Sandy Hook incident stating that I thought all guns should be taken away. My opinion has changed slightly since then concerning what types should be taken away and what types the public should be allowed to have access to (which is irrelevant in this particular blog post), but I was very distraught at the time. As usual, it brought up some interesting comments (which I ended up learning from, as always), and then one of my other friends commented and said that my opinion on gun control was wrong. I responded by saying that I respected his/her opinion, and that it was not right to tell me that my opinion was wrong. Opinions cannot be wrong. There are some people who just think differently, and you're going to run into that no matter where you go.
I guess the last thing that I would like to address about opinions is that they are subject to change. When I was a little younger, I guess about fifteen or sixteen, I had a strong belief in who I thought God was, and I also believed in Catholicism. But then about three years ago, my beliefs began to change, and therefore, my opinions on who or what God was. I questioned things that I didn't understand and that no one could provide any good answers for, and the more I practiced being an empath and working on my abilities, the more open-minded I became as a person. I saw the world in a brand new perspective and it opened my eyes up to the things that I used to think were "right." Because of this change, I decided that I didn't know anything. I could only speculate what I thought to be true, right, and just. I think that's why it's easy for me to listen to other people and to explain my side of things to the best of my ability. My opinion may not always be rational, and there may be holes in my theories/beliefs/ways of living, but I'm always trying to fill those holes in with what other people have to say about certain things.
Unless you're not open-minded, I would like to invite you and encourage you to have real conversations with me, especially if you disagree with what I have to say. As long as we can calmly discuss and reflect, I am up for anything. But opinions are not something to get worked up over or to deem as wrong or incorrect. Everyone has an opinion, and they are entitled to them, even if their argument is that there is a toaster God living on a planet five thousand light years away from here. (:
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