Whoever says that you should respect other people’s opinions, no matter how dim-witted they are, is both wrong and a hypocrite.
I’m sorry, this is something that needs to get out in the open. I know once in your life, you’ve gotten into a conversation that somehow lead to horrible movies, let’s use Meet the Spartans as our primary example.
“Hey, Paul, man, you know what’s really shitty?”
“No, man, what?”
“That parody of 300 from earlier this year.”
“What? YOU DIDN’T LIKE THAT? How can you not like it? It’s like Airplane!!!”
This is the point where I give my friend a delicious fist salad.
I shouldn’t be ranting about something this stupid, but every time you’ve said “respect others opinions” just melts away from your mind when you hear something like that. It doesn’t have to be those two idiots that make too many fart jokes, it can be about any sort of subject. My point is, there’s a line. There’s a specific point in which a person will break down under the stupidity and turn to their primal instincts.
Oh, typing this right now makes me feel like a snob, but how can you blame me? You’ve been in similar positions, overhearing conversations about your favorite literature, games, maybe even websites. You can’t prove or tell them wrong, leaving you helpless against your outrage.
One form of a horrible opinion is liking/hating something for little or no reason.
“Why’d you hate the Sixth Sense?”
“Cause it had a twist ending.”
A better answer would be “Because the ending was terrible“, or at least explaining yourself. I believe that saying something is good/horrible is just a statement, but after adding reasoning behind your statement, it then would become a true opinion. Hating something “because it had a twist ending”, to me, is not a good opinion, unless you back it up.
Here’s another demonstration of the contrast between opinion and statement.
“Dude, Cloverfield sucked!”
“Why?”
“It was just from the point of view from a camcorder!”
After I wave my critic wand:
“The ‘POV of the camcorder’ gimmick got old ages ago, and instead of being fresh and original, produced a stale and bland slice of mediocrity.”
(Just so you know, I liked both Cloverfield and Sixth Sense a whole lot.)
Another form of a stinky opinion is liking/hating something for the wrong reasons.
“Dude, remember ‘Hip to be Square’ from American Psycho?”
“What? That was totally lame.”
“Why? It was awesome!”
“It wasn’t scary AT ALL. It was unintentionally hilarious.”
Alright, not much need for explanation here. Some people simply don’t grasp the concept of things, and it’s so aggravating trying to explain to them. What makes it worse is that usually people who say these kinds of things are the type of people that wouldn’t ever admit that they are wrong. (I’m not just talking about this statement, I’m talking about in general.) I have to admit, this example is extreme, but you get the idea.
The last example of a bad opinion is what I call “no-good nostalgia”.
“Christ, did you see the new Indiana Jones movie? God-awful flick.”
“NO… It was really really good and awesome and aliens rule, so it’s good.”
“Are… you… serious? Name ONE smart thing about that movie!”
“…Well, it’s Indie, how can you not like it?!”
Okay, not only does this fall under the first two categories, it creates a new, horrific one that has such a deeply scarring effect that it’s rather worrying. The reason this statement is especially bad is simply because you can’t say they’re wrong, because they’re not wrong, but what they are doing is they’re both avoiding the question and not giving you any opinion. Saying that you “have to like something” is equally ridiculous, and calls for another, longer essay about how wrong that statement is. Like, that’s not even conversation. It defies conversation, or any meaning altogether. It’s like if you’re ordering a hamburger, and the order-taker asks you if you want fries, and you say “just put it all together and I’ll pay for it”. It’s just… random.
