Monday, January 06, 2020

What Is The Use of a Popular Opinion?

I got a comment from somebody I know IRL from a post in Facebook and there was something about it that seemed, off. Let's see what you, the reader, think:

David as much as you are entitled to your opinion, you seem to always be on the side of what most consider wrong.

What is the use of a popular opinion? I guess it depends on whether it is a hidden popular opinion or an open popular opinion. Let me elucidate. The Emperor's New Clothes (Kejserens nye klæder) by Hans Christian Anderson is a case of a hidden popular opinion: Everybody saw that the emperor was naked but they were afraid to say it. Only once a child said that the emperor had no clothes was the spell broken. An open popular opinion is one that is popular and widely stated. Here, what is the value in stating it yourself? To show that you are part of the herd? It is at best, an act of cowardice (wanting to belong) or of stupidity (stating facts that everyone already knows).

As to the specifics of this Facebook post, it was an article on the killing of Qasem Soleimani. This article did't take a position on the wisdom of the killing, which is why I think my interlocutor didn't read the article before he commented. But he knows I'm a conservative and probably assumed (correctly) that I approve of the killing. Most of the media has been highly critical, including the piece I posted, but I often post fair-minded articles that do not exactly hew to my own views. In any case, in spite of the MSM being fairly uniform in condemning the attack, I think that most Americans, once they find out about the career of Mr. Soleimani, are pretty much in favor of his demise.

Us little people are the ones saying, 'but the emperor has no clothes', in this situation

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