A Right to Be Wrong
by John Vinopal
When I was a kid, my parents tried to teach me right from wrong. It was a parent’s primary responsibility. Don’t lie, don’t steal, respect your elders and others, and don’t be a jerk. My parents were pretty clear on the rules and I don’t recall ever telling my father that we were going to have to agree to disagree. True, I didn’t always follow my parent’s instructions, but that was not a result of there being some ambiguity about what was right and what was wrong. To a rambunctious brat, being bad just felt so good.
As I reflect on the campaign season we have just suffered through, it seemed nearly impossible to have a reasonable discussion about anything political without it being painted by a broad brush of “personal opinion”. Opinion is defined by The Oxford Dictionary as being “a view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.” In the partisan world in which we live, is fact being dismissed in favor of an unwavering opinion? Can we ever be wrong if our opinions are formed without regard to that which can actually be proven or measured? Can we ever learn anything if the facts and measurements that bring our opinions into question are summarily dismissed?
I ask these questions not to be confrontational since I realize we all have strongly held beliefs, biases and opinions. Social media will tell you that facts often have very little to do with how we feel. We tend to surround ourselves with like-minded friends who share the same information that is intended merely to support our already-formed final answers. Conflicting opinions, and more disturbingly, facts that call our conclusions into question are “blocked” and the people who posted them are “unfriended”, leaving us happily home on the range where seldom is heard a discouraging word.
Eric Prebys, a scientist at Fermi Lab and personal friend recently posted: “The internet is such a strange social phenomenon. For all practical purposes, we have access to literally all of human knowledge, as well as the entire spectrum of political points of view, yet paradoxically, social media allows us to live entirely within an echo chamber where we can spend our whole lives just hearing our own opinions repeated back to us in ALL CAPS.” I’m a bit of a troll when it comes to social media, preferring to seek out those with whom I disagree and challenging them to support their opinions. This is far more entertaining for me, especially when a friend submits facts and data that actually supports their position and (GASP!!) PROVES ME WRONG!! Nobody is right all the time and most of us hate being wrong, but it happens to all of us and I’m grateful when it happens to me. If I’m wrong about something and it is brought to my attention, I gain a lot more than just wallowing in the “echo chamber” hearing what I want to hear.
WRONG is a word that has become derogatory even though it is an appropriate adjective for all of us at some time in our lives.
Meteorologists all over the country are making big bucks predicting the weather only to have Mother Nature prove them WRONG more times than not. Modern-day politics has produced an entire industry of pollsters who supposedly have their finger on the pulse of the electorate. Too often we find that these pollsters are dead wrong. Maybe they are using the wrong finger and just flipping us off.
Sadly, we are too often unwilling to accept the possibility that we are wrong, especially when politics are involved. Where some accuse others of being divisive or rude for presenting information that supports a contrary viewpoint, I thank them for the information. Where some people dismiss the exchange as a difference of opinion, I embrace the exchange as the building blocks for a better-informed electorate.
As this election year mercifully comes to an end, I hope that the hostility subsides and we can once again use social media for its intended purpose: sharing cute pet videos. But I also hope that we can once again be open to conflicting opinions. We all have a right to our opinions and we also all have a right to be wrong. I just hope that we become better able to recognize when we are exercising that right.
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Can not be reproduced or used without written permission All rights reserved, copyright, 2016
by John Vinopal
When I was a kid, my parents tried to teach me right from wrong. It was a parent’s primary responsibility. Don’t lie, don’t steal, respect your elders and others, and don’t be a jerk. My parents were pretty clear on the rules and I don’t recall ever telling my father that we were going to have to agree to disagree. True, I didn’t always follow my parent’s instructions, but that was not a result of there being some ambiguity about what was right and what was wrong. To a rambunctious brat, being bad just felt so good.
As I reflect on the campaign season we have just suffered through, it seemed nearly impossible to have a reasonable discussion about anything political without it being painted by a broad brush of “personal opinion”. Opinion is defined by The Oxford Dictionary as being “a view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.” In the partisan world in which we live, is fact being dismissed in favor of an unwavering opinion? Can we ever be wrong if our opinions are formed without regard to that which can actually be proven or measured? Can we ever learn anything if the facts and measurements that bring our opinions into question are summarily dismissed?
I ask these questions not to be confrontational since I realize we all have strongly held beliefs, biases and opinions. Social media will tell you that facts often have very little to do with how we feel. We tend to surround ourselves with like-minded friends who share the same information that is intended merely to support our already-formed final answers. Conflicting opinions, and more disturbingly, facts that call our conclusions into question are “blocked” and the people who posted them are “unfriended”, leaving us happily home on the range where seldom is heard a discouraging word.
Eric Prebys, a scientist at Fermi Lab and personal friend recently posted: “The internet is such a strange social phenomenon. For all practical purposes, we have access to literally all of human knowledge, as well as the entire spectrum of political points of view, yet paradoxically, social media allows us to live entirely within an echo chamber where we can spend our whole lives just hearing our own opinions repeated back to us in ALL CAPS.” I’m a bit of a troll when it comes to social media, preferring to seek out those with whom I disagree and challenging them to support their opinions. This is far more entertaining for me, especially when a friend submits facts and data that actually supports their position and (GASP!!) PROVES ME WRONG!! Nobody is right all the time and most of us hate being wrong, but it happens to all of us and I’m grateful when it happens to me. If I’m wrong about something and it is brought to my attention, I gain a lot more than just wallowing in the “echo chamber” hearing what I want to hear.
WRONG is a word that has become derogatory even though it is an appropriate adjective for all of us at some time in our lives.
Meteorologists all over the country are making big bucks predicting the weather only to have Mother Nature prove them WRONG more times than not. Modern-day politics has produced an entire industry of pollsters who supposedly have their finger on the pulse of the electorate. Too often we find that these pollsters are dead wrong. Maybe they are using the wrong finger and just flipping us off.
Sadly, we are too often unwilling to accept the possibility that we are wrong, especially when politics are involved. Where some accuse others of being divisive or rude for presenting information that supports a contrary viewpoint, I thank them for the information. Where some people dismiss the exchange as a difference of opinion, I embrace the exchange as the building blocks for a better-informed electorate.
As this election year mercifully comes to an end, I hope that the hostility subsides and we can once again use social media for its intended purpose: sharing cute pet videos. But I also hope that we can once again be open to conflicting opinions. We all have a right to our opinions and we also all have a right to be wrong. I just hope that we become better able to recognize when we are exercising that right.
Back to John's Page
Can not be reproduced or used without written permission All rights reserved, copyright, 2016