Having an Opinion...

I meant to write a new post last night, but exhaustion got the best of me.  It's funny how insomnia work though because, even though I had no energy to write a blog post, I tossed and turned all night long. 

Regardless of how I write tonight's blog post, it is going to be oxymoronic and probably a little hypocritical.  The reason for this is because tonight I am writing about people who are irrationally opinionated. 

I will be the first to admit that I am very opinionated.  I like to study, I like to analyze, and I like to share...this is an awful, and sometimes, explosive combination of character traits.  I firmly believe that it is a good thing to be opinionated. I can't imagine an intelligent person or a leader who is void of having an opinion.  In fact, I do not believe it is even a possibility.  Having a  truly good opinion of something implies that the person with the opinion has some knowledge.  It implies that they have an alternate perspective that transcends whatever attempt at indoctrination has been fired their way.  I like people with studied opinions, and I love hearing/listening to their perspective.

What I do not like, and the reason I am writing about people with opinions tonight; are people who form opinions based on a single perspective.  What I mean by "single perspective: is when a person hears, from someone they know, that this person's phone service provider screwed them over and the customer representative treated them poorly.  The people I don't like automatically think, "Oh, they must be the worst company ever, and I bet they treat every customer that way," - then they tweet about it..." I think you get the point.  Those people, the ones who don't ever try anything for themselves, or do any sort of research.  Those people irritate me a little bit.  It amazes me when people I know post something on their Facebook status or Tweet something that just rips an idea, product, or person that I like without any factual evidence for their case (I know I'm guilty of this - read the second paragraph and save your fingers from carpel tunnel).  I'm not trying to sound Holier-than-Thou by writing this.  I just think some people need to be reminded that they need to slow down, chill out, and not hate things just because they heard one side of a bitter story about them. 

My conclusion is simple.  Be opinionated...but for everyone else's sakes, do your research.

-Matt