Are you too extreme about your opinion? What would it take to change your opinion?
By Shadi
@Madshadi (8840)
Brussels, Belgium
December 29, 2016 1:00pm CST
I used to have political discussions online in past and I met a lot of people who are too extreme about their opinions and about the side they are supporting that even a crystal clear truth can't change.
This made me think that they either choose to close their eyes to the truth and believe what they think is right regardless of everything else. Or they know deep inside that their opinion is wrong but still don't want to admit it publicly.
Would you change your opinion about a fundamental political belief of yours or about a cause you are supporting if you discovered that you have been misinformed about it?
6 people like this
7 responses
@1hopefulman (45120)
• Canada
30 Dec 16
I am a truth-seeker and if something I believe turns out to be not true then I change my opinion or belief. I see no point or advantage in believing a lie.
1 person likes this
@1hopefulman (45120)
• Canada
30 Dec 16
@Madshadi They hate to admit that they could be wrong. They think they might lose face if they admitted that they had been misled.
1 person likes this
@Madshadi (8840)
• Brussels, Belgium
30 Dec 16
@1hopefulman yeah there is that but the ones I met still insisted on supporting injusice in their following posts. If I was embarrassed by the fact that someone just proved me wrong about something I thought was good, then the least I should do is stop supporting that.
1 person likes this
@Bluedoll (16773)
• Canada
30 Dec 16
The following is a political argument. 
Anyone is welcome to try to show me their version of the "truth" if they wish to disagree with me. For the record I will change my opinions on political ideas but it requires more than rough words or taunts. It requires reason.
My argument is there isn't any "truth" in politics. Therefore political belief is like the wind. I have faith in God but little in politicians. By definition politics is defined off wikipedia as..
"Politics (from Greek: p???t???? politikos, definition "of, for, or relating to citizens") is the process of making decisions applying to all members of each group. More narrowly, it refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance — organized control over a human community, particularly a state."
Good enough definition. We can recognize authority and adhere to the laws of the land but nothing in the definition suggests truth. So opinions vary with who might currently be in power at any given time?
Anyone is welcome to try to show me their version of the "truth" if they wish to disagree with me. For the record I will change my opinions on political ideas but it requires more than rough words or taunts. It requires reason.
My argument is there isn't any "truth" in politics. Therefore political belief is like the wind. I have faith in God but little in politicians. By definition politics is defined off wikipedia as..
"Politics (from Greek: p???t???? politikos, definition "of, for, or relating to citizens") is the process of making decisions applying to all members of each group. More narrowly, it refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance — organized control over a human community, particularly a state."
Good enough definition. We can recognize authority and adhere to the laws of the land but nothing in the definition suggests truth. So opinions vary with who might currently be in power at any given time?1 person likes this
@Bluedoll (16773)
• Canada
30 Dec 16
@Madshadi Thanks for giving that explanation because it does back up your original post nicely. You are totally right, that same kind of mismanagement of history and facts pertaining to issues around the world does occur even in discussions outside this forum as well. Speech makers and panels will distort or leave out facts just to make their side of an argument seem stronger. I think we can even see this kind of thing going on in courtrooms.
But getting back to this board. I do see often a resistance to any kind of reasonable debate in many cases. Some members might look at the site as a place to drop something like blog post with little interest in debating what they write. They seem to only want agreement comments. I don't know really what some people are thinking.
I also don't know very much about the subject you are writing on here so it is all educational to me which is a good thing. 
1 person likes this
@Madshadi (8840)
• Brussels, Belgium
30 Dec 16
@Bluedoll I personally like when people disagree with me. That made me see things differently and even change some of my political views about recent events in the world. If everyone would agree with everything that I say, I would've never seen things from another perspective.
I used to be very active on political forums. Debating with people who deny others basic human rights due to their religion or ethnicity (and based on outright lies no less) baffled me almost every time.
@Madshadi (8840)
• Brussels, Belgium
30 Dec 16
I believe that a political discussion covers a wider area than the definition of politics. One of the topics in that post was about Palestinians not having the right to live in West Bank because, as that user claimed, they came there from other places. Not only that he did not provide any evidence to that claim, but he was not even interested in the evidence to contrary. The British mandate census of the period predating the establishment of Israel shows a natural increase in the population. Which means that Palestinians couldn't have been immigrants from elsewhere. That fact wouldn't make him change his political opinion - that Palestinians do not have the right to live there - anyways. It is this kind of truths and facts that I think should make people change their opinion about any political cause.
@quantum2020 (12041)
• Ciudad De Mexico, Mexico
29 Dec 16
If I discovered that I have been misinformed about an issue in my community, I would change my opinion in support of the best cause and benefits to the community
1 person likes this
@TheInvisibleMan (17597)
•
29 Dec 16
Usually I have a formed opinion for everything, but if I have to change my mind (based on valid arguments), I change without problems. 
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@Madshadi (8840)
• Brussels, Belgium
29 Dec 16
@TheInvisibleMan haha! I just wish everyone would think like that. Why being extreme about something that has been proven false?
1 person likes this
@Gita17112016 (3611)
• Trinidad And Tobago
29 Dec 16
Yes, I would like to think so. I am an extremist (not in politics) but I can be swayed with a reasonable and logical argument. Where my spiritual beliefs are concern, they are ill logical. And I am happy with that!
1 person likes this
