You are not entitled to your opinion

[ciphergoth]

• You Are Never Entitled to Your Opinion
  
• Sorry, but you are not entitled to your opinion
  
• Why You Are Not Entitled To Your Opinion

You are, I think, entitled to the right to hold and express any opinion without being shut down by the State for doing so; that is where the entitlement ends.

[Poll #1410915]
(edit: removed Harlan Ellison quote, which doesn't really express what I'm getting at here)

Comments

[zwol.livejournal.com]

I hesitated to answer this poll for a while because of discomfort with something in its premises, which I've now figured out what it was. On balance I do want to discourage people from saying that...

but

I think that there is a right to be left alone by others, and I think it extends to a right to refuse to enter debate. If presented with a counterargument to something I believe, I may not have the energy and/or time to dispute it, or I may believe that arguing the point is socially inappropriate in context, or whatever. I'd generally express it in those terms ("I disagree with you but I don't want to discuss it right now").

Example: I was at a pastry shop one time wearing a fairly provocative shirt (http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/#Science) and the cashier tried to lay an argument for young-earth creationism on me. I was too tired for it and the discussion would have pissed off everyone behind me in line. I said something along the lines of "I don't want to hold up the line arguing about it" which she accepted with good grace.

[zwol.livejournal.com]

Addendum: I would also allow a right to exit an argument on grounds of fatigue, without conceding the point. Again, the phrasing I'd choose is more like "I still disagree but I don't want to argue about it any more".

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

As I discuss above, I think some sort of wording along the lines of "let's agree to disagree" is a lot less problematic!