I have two weddings to go to this year. I’ve got a cousin’s in about a month, and then a high school friend is getting married this summer. First time I’ve had more than one wedding to attend in a year, I think. I’m looking forward to them both. Right now, I’m having fun thinking about my outfit. I don’t wear a lot of formal wear anymore, so I usually just use a bunch of suit pieces from when I worked at Vanderbilt, which I was already looking to phase out as I figured out a better, less masc look. I’m thinking I’ll start simple with like a jumper (solid color, halter top) and a blazer, and maybe a shirt if I think I need it. The shirt lets me add a bolo tie. I also have my haircut picked out, so now I need to get my car through the shop so I can find and schedule a hairdresser with less stress. My undercut is so long that if I put my hair back, it looks like I just have short hair, and I don’t like it.
Let’s see…I can start out with a discussion about anti-intellectualism in America. There’s a lot of it here, we’ve all seen it. It’s always a favorite hit for people to say the experts are wrong in some way, that you can’t trust them. Everyone loves to rag on schools, because they “don’t teach you anything about the real world,” with “real world” meaning day-to-day survival or being a wage slave. Conspiracy theories abound and get way too much protection by the wider media landscape.
One thing that I keep coming back to is the phrase “everybody’s entitled to their own opinion.” I think, as used, that’s a fundamentally wrong statement. You’re entitled to have opinions, as in “at all” or, devoid of other context, “free thought,” not to the one you currently have. I know that sounds nitpicky, but I bring it up because it’s a really easy idea for bad actors to flip the meaning of, and flip they have. It’s often used to mean any individual opinion someone has is a sacred, inviolable thing that you can’t “take away” or “attack” by arguing with successfully. It’s one thing for maniacs to go on a rant about pineapple not being a pizza topping, despite it being one of the best, and to end a protracted and emotional discussion with no objective or factual conclusion by saying, “everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.” It’s another entirely for bigots to spout some conspiracy-brained hogwash about immigrants being sent here by Jewish people to keep Democrats in power and try to walk out of it by saying, “well, you’re entitled to your opinion, and I’m entitled to mine.” Because no, you’re not entitled to believe in factually incorrect things that inform and motivate (or more honestly, provide cover for what actually motivates) your actions and attitudes in real life. We share this reality together, and we’re all humans within it; just because you refuse to rethink your ideas on the nature of gender doesn’t mean I don’t exist, or that I can’t be mad at you for voting to take away my right to basic safety in public, you know?
This is, in fact, part of the anti-intellectual trend, because it encourages people to hold their ignorance dear and raise their blinders to facts with pride. If you convince people that their opinions are just as good as facts and expert knowledge, then they won’t have to feel lost or like they have no footing without it. Confirmation bias is always a problem, but it might be less so at the scales we see if people didn’t have such faith in their ability to walk down that road. Armed so, people can walk around with no real knowledge, skill, or experience for most subjects in life, and still feel perfectly comfortable dictating to others on any subject.
It’s a big reason why I don’t like social media, because the people in charge have turned it into a space that encourages users to share their clearcut, authoritative opinions on every subject, and only one opinion is allowed to be correct at any given time. “Takes” are truly annoying and draining to sit through all the time. Maybe instead of feeling a moral obligation to lay out a plan for peace in the Middle East, we just listen to experts, and focus on finding reliable facts? Like, there’s problems with any system, and I’m not advocating for people to stay silent when they have strong feelings; I just think that it’s ok to admit you don’t know what’s going on and to not have an opinion.
I’ve talked before about how I struggle with adopting others’ opinions too easily because I feel pressured to have opinions, and I’m sure that’s a problem many people have to some degree or other. I know it feels powerless and hollow to say, “I don’t know.” But at the end of the day, most of us don’t know, and that’s valid. We don’t have to know, we’re just people living our lives. We have immediate needs and desires, and we have our upbringing and immediate environments; we aren’t all well-versed in world politics or health science or the supply chain. A world of democratized knowledge should be about empowering and highlighting the knowledge and expertise of others, of those who do know, so that we can all learn, not empowering everyone to believe they’re the smartest in the room and need no growth or reflection. Our own focus, other than self-education, should be on sidestepping the morass and figuring out our values, and how potential actions or stances we can take relate to them.
I do, of course, recognize the irony of writing a blog post on this subject. I actually do struggle with thoughts about if I know enough on a subject. It’s part of why I try to keep the language more casual and use a lot of “thought” and “feel” phrases. It’s why I don’t post much on social media besides my art, because it’s really embarrassing to see Facebook memories of me saying literally anything about anything. I have no idea how anyone uses Twitter, and I’m reluctant to get deep on other social platforms because people talk the same way on them. I also stick to things I actually do know at least some about and have put a lot of thought into, so that I can at least feel like I’m not spouting random nonsense. I could say the more personal entries are better because I must have expertise on my own feelings, but let’s face it, I don’t. I very often don’t realize I have a migraine until my eyes pass over a light and they burn; I spend a lot of time repeating experiences in my head and slowly processing them so I can figure out if I am, in fact, happy about it. Like, I recently discovered a trick to figure out if I’m sensitive about something, and I turn thirty this year. I very much don’t think I’m an expert on most anything and would prefer to avoid sounding like one. This is one of those, “if you ask the question, that’s your answer,” situations; I think a lot about whether or not an opinion is worth sharing, and that’s why I think I have some ground to encourage others to acknowledge and accept their ignorance, and thus maybe exercise discretion in their speech when knowledge is required.
Because I think this free-wheeling way of trading knowledge for opinions (read “knee-jerk emotions and vibes”) does a lot of harm. Like, part of why it’s popular to say “modern art is just trash with a plaque next to it” is because people aren’t being educated about art widely. They don’t know how to approach it, and thus either miss the point or feel threatened by it. Maybe some of it is trash, in that not all art is good or successful at carrying out the high ideals for which it was made, but most people won’t know the difference. It’s a key and easy trick to use to maintain status, too, you know? Like, I deal with it a lot with comics and manga, which are always seen as some “less than” version of prose and a lower form of art than TV and movies, before you even get to “real art.” If everyone is living with decades-old stereotypes about what counts as art and what different art forms are like and can be, then no one will ever give it an honest look and reevaluate that equation, and the executives in charge of the relevant companies can maintain the status quo. All those people who don’t know a lot about art and just want the most accessible form of socially accepted pop art don’t have to worry about being ridiculed as nerds, or reckon with why we have nerds to ridicule in the first place. It’s almost like we made a cultural ecosystem where we raise superficial misunderstandings on a pedestal and discourage people from looking outside their bubbles, huh?
“Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion” is supposed to mean, “I don’t get it, so I’ll leave that for you and come back when I learn more,” not, “my ignorant, nitpicky observation about that sounds stupid and unserious to me, therefore it doesn’t have value and you should feel bad for disagreeing with me.” It’s supposed to be, “I don’t know enough to even tell if what you’re saying is sound logic, so I’ll gather background knowledge and see how my values align here,” not, “well, I think this is what’s true, no matter what facts or arguments you present to me, so now you’re attacking me as a person and I’m insulted.” We don’t have to have a take on everything, and some or most of the facts and knowledge in the world will likely be uncomfortable and inconvenient for you. It’s not up to us to bend to your opinions, for the world to reshape itself to fit what you think; it’s up to you to figure out how you fit into it all. You’re entitled to have opinions, and you should. Go out, learn, consider, understand. That’s what opinions are, after all, a combination of knowledge, emotions, and thoughts. Having and maintaining opinions is work, not a replacement for work.
Weekly Thoughts 4/20/24
Life in the Gutters 