An opinionated opinion on opinion and why opinions are worthy of examination and even dismantling.

From Websters: Opinion. A view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.

Rather difficult not to have an opinion on most subjects. Our brains gather information--facts, beliefs, data of all sorts, etc whether we like it or not--and then at some point draws a conclusion from them to form our personal opinion. Our opinion can only be as good as the information that fed it, so what on earth makes that automatically worthy of R-E-S-P-E-C-T?

My particular personality, the one I brought with me into this world, was perfect for the Mormon indoctrination. I was an ideal candidate--so eager to please, to be the good son. I gathered only Mormon information for the most part in the beginning and so my opinions were Mormon opinions. As a teen I started sneaking glances at the real world. These did not support my Mormon opinions and therefore required disregarding--which I did as a good Mormon teen. But the world at large stuck in the back of my mind. My opinions had changed. I just needed to realize that.

People's opinions interest me very little. What I crave is to know the nuts and bolts of how they arrived at those opinions. What went into the conglomerate?

Without understanding the how and why of an opinion, I find them useless and they become just shuttlecock being lobbed back and forth over a net in badminton.

In the end, I find no reason whatsoever to automatically respect someone's opinion and I do so even less when they use the misnomer "my truth" for their opinions.

Truth is based on fact and knowledge. Opinion is a judgement based on hope and belief and a summation of information that may be hold up to scrutiny or may not.

The Mormon church could not hold up to scrutiny. Therefore I do not respect it. I now respect that which can hold up to scrutiny. I like opinions that are served with the impetus for their formation. And, I appreciate when reasoned opinions come with a side of empathy.



My opinions on "cake" come from having lived the life of a gay Mormon kid in the fifties and sixties and early seventies and having lost someone loved to the Electroshock therapy program at BYU and having lost friends who were not good enough for regular society to suicide or given no support when they became sick from neither church nor government. I was chased down the streets of Provo and narrowly escaped a gay bashing by climbing over a chainlink fence with barb wire at the top.

So there you have the nuts and bolts of why I have come to the OPINON that anyone should be able to walk into any bakery and order a cake that that bakery would bake for anyone else. Not any cake at all, just a cake that they would bake for any other customer. I was left with a constant paralyzing fear everywhere I went of whether or not I would be rejected or accepted. I avoided many places where I just wasn't sure. It doesn't feel good.

R E S P E C T. It's not just for songs anymore.

Done & Done ... wish I could make a really good comment here, other than you are adored here. At least that's my opinion.

I’ll make you a cake. It’ll be my first, but it’s all yours.

Thanks for sharing this.

Thank you for sharing this. I know I probably shouldn't still be surprised, but I still wonder that we are still fighting for basic decency and equal rights after all this time.

I'm an optimist by nature and I still hope that someday we, as a society, will be able to move past this and celebrate people and diversity instead of seeing differences as something to vilify.

D&D, it's posts like that which not only reaffirm my admiration for you, but my respect. In capitals and spades :)

I have never met D&D but I know him on the internet and I like him very much. He is intelligent, empathetic, and wise. I consider him a friend.

That there is some good stuff!

Thank you all. Means a lot. You've made this opinionated old goat very happy today. :)