Ever feel like you're incapable of forming a solid opinion?

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I can understand that happens to me sometimes.



legalize it



yes.

ha yeah xD

Yes!

When it comes to any sort of abstract debate such as politics. I just don't know what to say. So yeah.

Legitiment post !....sorry ahve to post 5 in order to post a link

Well I used to be overly opinionated but now I have the same problem. I don't think it's a problem though since it's healthier to be more open minded about these issues. The one thing you have to be careful with is your standard of what is excusable and what is inexcusable no matter how trivial the issue is.

I had trouble in debate when it came to gathering data and backing it up with my own words but other than that, it's like playing lawyer and prosecutor when you try and make a legitimate opinion out of something you may or may not feel strongly on and then convince the audience by using strong back ups and whatever means necessary to gloss over what is in fact what is fact and what is circumstantial. That's the game of it.

Last edited by MissConstrue on 26 Sep 2008, 8:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Oooooh... I love this one.

An unequivocal yes.

I am always accused of being argumentative and obtuse for pointing out the missed perspective.

I cursed as devils advocate when I advocate nothing.

A possibly irrelevant note...
My family descends from the hereditary reeves of the scots isles.
This trait would be handy for a judge.

I can sorta relate. What I find difficult is thinking I have to have an airtight defence for any position I would take. I have an internal 'bullS**t detector, but it can be thrown off by horses**t as well...

Well....yes and no.

I mean, sometimes my position is passionate, and then I think it over after I've discovered something new about it. And it flickers and eventually switches to the other side. Then again, I am often admittedly undecided about something, but find myself unwittingly supporting one side or another through actions while maintaining that I really don't care one way or the other or haven't made up my mind.

I can argue most points from most sides, and I can understand most points of view. Some kind of social or cultural relativism I guess. That doesn't stop me from feeling very very strongly about certain things. But I try to stay open-minded.

It makes it difficult for me to argue or sometimes reason effectively, with many of my possible arguments or thoughts being canceled out by counterarguments in my head before they even make it out into the open....

So...yes and no.

Yes, I can't feel certain about anything. Except that.

If it's any consolation, his own existence was the only thing Descartes was sure about.

But we all have to live in the assumptive world.

I try to do that by taking reasonable risks. I used to play a very safe game but then I'd find myself suddenly taking a big risk, I think it was the boredom that got the better of me.

What changed me a bit was when somebody coached me in card playing. I'd been playing on the basis of minimisng my losses. He told me to work out what was the best hand my opponent could have, short of it being too good a hand for me to possibly beat, then to play as if the opponent had that hand. In a nutshell, playing to win. It improved my results a lot. I've transferred the gambit to a workplace situation, it helped. But my nature is still quite conservative.

Yes, just like Einstein proved time wasn't absolute, I've often thought.

I am very much like that. I suggest we invent a latin-derived, fancy-sounding name for this* and return to our scheduled activities.

* I sometimes say 'mesit' which is derived from a constructed language. It's a nice term but ever political position which wants to be taken seriously needs a latin-derived name.

I really have this problem. People get so pissed because if they argue one way, I'm always going to argue the other even though I usually agree with them. I feel like I can always see the other side and this scares me because sometimes I feel like I should just be like "No, this is always wrong", but I can usually see the motivation for the person doing the wrong action and feel bad for them. Except on abortion - how come that's the only issue that I see as somewhat wrong, which is considered totally unacceptable by everyone I know. I always find myself wondering when people are convicted if they really did it - I panic about wrongful arrest or having someone I know be wrongfully convicted because it seems so easy to insinuate things or accidentally do something wrong. Do I think Scott Petersen killed his wife - absolutely, and I think it was 100% wrong. But sometimes I worry that maybe he didn't do it - the evidence is circumstancial, and it scares me that someone could be convicted because things look bad instead of actual proof. Or men falsely accused of date rape - that's pretty awful. It's why I do so well in ethics - I can easily see each viewpoint and moral relativsim whereas everyone else seems to be stuck on "no, this is always right/wrong"

I have strong opinions about certain things, including in politics, certain types of ethics, etc. However, I do have a morally neutral stance on certain things that seem to get other people very emotional, which gets me (correctly) labeled morally relativist. I don't see what's wrong with this--I see it as being able to detect the gaps in the rationality of society, that everyone else seems to have a blind spot for.

In particular, I seem to have a complete inability to feel the kind of "creeped out" or repulsed feeling people tend to get about certain sexual practices. I find people's disapproval of bestiality as almost laughably ridiculous, as the consent argument used seems to be blind to all the other (sometimes very uncomfortable or even painful) things we don't think twice about forcing on animals. Even about something like pedophilia, while I agree with the majority that it is not practical to have adult-child relationships without inviting all kinds of coercion, and therefore for the most part support age restrictions on sex, I also fail to see why unwanted genital contact is seen as SO much bigger a deal that other forced behavior. It seems the average Joe has a deeply instinctive reaction to "weird" sexual behavior, to the point where he almost feels he is about to vomit, something I can not say I have come even close to feeling. It's not a total absence of fear of others, as I have felt, for example, the weird sense when being followed by a stranger through a dark alley.

I have trouble making solid opinions about certain things also (politics, who is wrong in an argument, ect.). I look at things in such a scientific and logical way that I can see both sides. Being unbiased to a fault about everything doesn't help much either. I've been trying to just go with my gut feelings and force myself to have stronger opinions just to socialize and be better understood by people but it just feels so brash and idiotic.

You are awesome. I really wish more people understood things this way. There are things I can be certain of though, but for me to reach that point it always takes a considerable amount of time to think about, exploring all situations and possibilities/ sides to it.

I have this difficulty. It is very nice to know that I am not the only one

Yes, I'm an empath and I think a lot.

I can extrapolate, and think broadly but fairly.

And I'm creative.

And people are weird. Who can ever know what they'll do, or not do, or have done, or not done. True about needing to turn it off.. I've learnt that more over time.

Whoever mentioned Darlie Routier.. was right. that's a particularly tricky case. I've been obsessed with it a couple times and it's just really hard to answer questions about and form an opinion. For anyone.