Friday, June 07, 2024

Opinions built on loose sand


Someone expressing a difference of opinion with me doesn't really bother me. What bothers me is a difference of opinion when the opinions are based on objectively incorrect "facts"; hallucinations. Things that can easily be found to be false, if one looks into it.

A personal friend of mine holds many opinions of this type. She's not interested in hearing anything that would challenge her opinions, so I rarely bother, but it is really strange to me. I don't understand this at all. Normally, I just take note of it and move on.

I know she's highly influenced by "public opinion", especially those expressed by the customers and coworkers she's around every day. She doesn't pay attention to "the news", but she still absorbs the narrative. And when their opinions are baseless, hers end up there, too. But, "everyone knows...", so what can you do?

My first observation of this phenomenon was back in 2020 when she was sure Covid was going to kill off all the old and weak, and that the shots were the only thing that might save us all. I nearly broke her brain when I didn't get the shot(s)-- she was sure I was doomed. She wouldn't listen to anything I had to say on the matter. I was foolish and was spreading the plague to the innocent.

In a recent conversation, she expressed a few different opinions of this sort in a short period of time, which is what got me thinking about it. Some of these opinions could actually be dangerous for her to act on, but when I tried to say something about it, she shut me down. She's not interested. Others could save her from a huge amount of future problems, while solving current problems. Nope. Not interested. Others probably won't make a difference in her life, but it's odd to not even be curious enough to want to find out the truth. She's the most incurious person I've ever known.

It seems odd to me

That's probably more common in modern humans than I'm comfortable admitting, but if this is a fact, my opinion should change to reflect it.

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Thank you for reading.