What's Your Opinion?
My friend’s hairdresser smokes weed every night and supports gay marriage, even though she’s pro-life and a passionate supporter of the Heartbeat Bill that Texas passed. I also know of a gun-carrying Greenpeace advocate, and an uber-masculine, tatted-up ranch-owner who’s super into psychedelics.
These are a few of my favorite lines from David Perell’s essay on Austin. They outline my favorite type of thinking: independent thinking.
Lack of independent thinking is one of the problems with our society today. People pick teams. People choose sides. People root for political candidates like they root for sports teams. The rivalries are bitter. The divisions are detrimental.
What we all forget is that American politics isn’t a zero sum game. It’s not like Sunday football. When your team loses, you can’t go home crying and try again next time. You have to hang around and work with the winners because we’re all neighbors.
I don’t have brilliant solutions. But if more people thought through issues and arrived at their own opinions—rather than picking a team and defaulting to that team’s position on everything—we’d all get along much better.
I could be better at this too, but I do my best to form my own opinions. I want to lay a few of them out so you can see what I mean.
You’re going to disagree with me, but I’m not doing this to make any political points. I’m willing to change my opinions with a compelling enough argument.
The opinion isn’t what matters. What matters is independent thought, thought that doesn’t align perfectly with the right or the left, thought that is the product of reading, conversing, listening, and analyzing—not memorizing talking points.
What matters is this: if I tell you one of my opinions you won’t be able to guess the rest.
Here we go.
I believe Americans have the right to own guns, and I believe this right is guaranteed by the Constitution. I believe this right should have some boundaries, but the boundaries should be wide, and they shouldn’t shrink.
I believe women should have the right to have an abortion. I think every state should have laws protecting this right. I don’t believe the Constitution guarantees the right to have an abortion, so I don’t disagree with the recent Supreme Court case overturning Roe v. Wade.
I believe all drugs should be legal, as should sex work.
I think wages should be higher for most jobs at the lower end of the pay scale. But I think this should happen through the power of big employers—like Amazon, Lowe’s, Walmart, McDonald’s, etc.—paying a higher wage, not through government mandated minimum wages.
I believe fitness level and body fat percentage are entirely within your control. But I believe Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Tech pump so much propaganda into American eyes and ears that most people don’t understand how to be healthy.
I believe police departments should have more funding, not less.
I believe we have an unfair criminal justice system. I think it’s rigged in favor of people who have money which means that minorities are disproportionately treated unfairly.
I strongly support the military, but I believe the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Korea were a waste of American life.
I believe college is a waste of time and money for many 18 year olds.
I believe masculinity is a good thing. We need more of it in society, and we need to stop vilifying it.
I hate the undercurrent of sexism women face on a daily basis. For example, the default assumption that if a woman works in health care, she must be a nurse.
I also hate when women assume a nice gesture from a man—opening a door or offering a seat on the subway—is sexism rather than kindness.
I believe the COVID vaccine (when it came out) was a good idea, with little downside, for most people. But I also understand why so many people refused to get it.
I don’t think we should forgive student debt, but I do think we should spend more money on education.
I think most news is bullshit. It’s meant to entertain, not to inform. We’re 100x better off swapping all news watching for book reading—try these.
I think President Trump is an asshole and President Biden is a clown. I think President Obama is a really nice guy and was probably a pretty good president.
I think you’re starting to get the point.
This is how I currently view the world, but it isn’t my identity. I can change these opinions without getting kicked off a team because I don’t belong to a team. I can leave them at any time, trade them for different ones, or set them aside and come back to them later.
My opinions aren’t who I am. They are what I believe, at this precise moment in time. Holding this outlook makes changing your mind infinitely easier.
I’ll be the first to admit I could do better, and if everyone wants to do better, society will improve.
So here’s a challenge for you.
Pick a few of your opinions.
Identify the specific pieces of information you would need to change your mind.
Go hunting for that information. If you find it, change your mind.
If you don’t find it, listen to podcasts with people who hold opposing viewpoints. Read a book or some articles written by people who disagree with you. Keep an open mind for convincing arguments and change your mind if appropriate.
If you go through this process and don’t change your mind, that’s fine. You can feel more confident in your opinions knowing you put them through the ringer.
Here’s the tough part. When you hear other people’s opinions, assume they arrived at them through the same rigorous thought that you did. Have an intellectual and respectful conversation with them. Resolve to work together.
Good luck. Let me know how it goes.
Photo by Daniela Cuevas on Unsplash
