Know When to Have No Opinion

You don't need to weigh in on everything.

Nowadays, it feels like we're practically begged to weigh in on every issue in the zeitgeist. We add overlays to our profile pictures, videos to our stories, and flags to our bios - all so we can signal to everyone that we’re true citizens of the world, and we give a shit. Some people are so obsessed with their opinions, they even write blogs about them (narcissists).

I imagine this is because of a new kind of social pressure. Neutrality no longer commands the respect it once did, and more people now adopt a 'if you’re not with us, you’re against us' attitude. If you say you’re unsure on some issue, or that you choose to have no opinion, you’re seen as lazy or even immoral. This issue, just like the last one we all cared about 4 months ago, has become a litmus test for basic human decency - and if you reserve judgement, you’ve failed in spectacular fashion.

This approach is probably unwise. It incentivises us to wade into topics that we know nothing about, because we’re terrified we’ll be abandoned by whatever group we currently align with. It sets us up to say and believe things that are probably false, with a fiery fervor that only alienates others, and makes Christmas Dinners uncomfortable.

Take a totally easy and non controversial issue - Israel and Palestine. 2 years ago, I’d wager most people I know wouldn’t even be able to point them out on a map (I’d wager most people probably still can’t). Yet, it seems everyone I know became an expert in history and geopolitics overnight. It feels like there was an unspoken agreement that everyone must pick a side, despite the fact that the war is happening thousands of miles away between two factions that most average people know nothing about.

I don’t really feel comfortable saying anything about the conflict publicly besides the fact that Hamas are clearly evil, there should be efforts to avoid civilian casualties, and I wish war didn’t happen. Why don’t I feel confident enough to say anything else? Because every source of information on the topic is going to be from someone biased, and the amount of relevant information is so enormous that it’s unlikely I’d ever get a full picture. How many books would I need to read? How many historians would I need to consult? How much would I need to study the ethics of war? Most importantly, even if I form a belief on this topic - what am I able to do about it?

I feel like before committing ourselves to some important issue, we should ask ourselves 2 things:

1. How much work is required to get true beliefs on this issue?

2. What can I do about it once I have true beliefs?

The reality is, most of us can’t influence the world as much as we’d like. Sharing an Instagram story might feel like doing something, but realistically, all we’re doing is identifying ourselves with a group. Most global issues are not ones that have any practical consequences on our lives, and require herculean amounts of effort to be confident in our beliefs on them - so why use up what limited energy we have?

This isn’t to say that you should never have an opinion - some people might be better positioned to understand the conflict in the Middle East than me, and there are going to be some issues that pass the above test for everyone. If an issue affects how you behave, and you think you can get a good grasp of it, you should spend time on it. Reflecting on animal ethics, the duty of charity, and who to vote for are all consequential in our personal lives - and it’s plausible that you can get justified beliefs on them. Sadly though, these are often issues that people spend the least amount of time thinking about. We vote for who our parents vote for, we stop at giving the occasional pound to the homeless, and assume meat eating is fine because we’ve always done it. We spend far too much time thinking about and fighting social wars that we have no influence on (and are probably confused about), and spend no time on things we can actually change.

It’s not a sin to say you have no opinion on a subject. In fact, sometimes you should! To have a strong opinion on everything is a kind of arrogance. It assumes you’re able to grasp everything that needs to be grasped about every complex issue - some of which scholars spend their entire lives trying to understand. Where does this confidence come from? A YouTube video? An article in the Washington Post? I wish it were that easy.

We don’t have a duty to chime in on everything in the news cycle. Admitting that you don’t always know enough to have an opinion isn’t weakness—it’s humility, something we could all use a bit more of.