I disagree with you, but I'm not going to ask you for a link to prove your above opinion, ie your judgement call.
I find it totally ridiculous I am being asked for "proof" for what is essentially a judgement call.
Alright, going to talk with you very seriously here and try to remain extremely respectful. This is the same thing I had to do with Devil505 about opinions.
Yes, anyone at all can make a statement that is a pure opinion, a judgement call, with absolutely
zero evidence backing it up. Anyone can do that. I can say that people calling him a nazi are doing so because they actually think he's hitler reincarnated. People could say George Bush was actually put in power by a secret society specifically to use him to get oil from Iraq. People can say all kinds of wild out there opinion. Everyones free to do that and you're absolutely correct, opinions do not
have to be backed up by fact.
But we are on a debate forum. We are on a forum where discussion, discourse, and exchange of ideas is the goal. Part of what goes with that is the ability to make a credible argument and to back up your opinion to spur forward a debate.
If I go "I believe they think he's hitler, reincarnated" and give absolutely zero proof to back up my claim the extent of the conversation would become:
Someone else goes "No they don't. People also called Bush a nazi, do you think they believed he was hitler re-incarnated? They specifically bring up individual plans of his that resemble some of the philosophies of nazi germany, couldn't that be why they do it?"
and then I'd go "Nope, I believe it, its my opinion."
End any sort of discussion. There's no ability for discussion there because one side is trying to have one and the other is just saying "I believe this way, that's the way I believe in, because I believe in it". There's no discussion there.
Opinions, on their own, are worthless. They're pointless. They're not worth talking about or giving credance to. For an opinion to be even worthy of DISCUSSING or accepting as potentially true it needs to have SOME KIND of credibility. This credibility can come about in two ways:
1) Coming from someone with a reputation that is respectable enough that people give their opinions credance even without facts.
2) Some kind of actual presented facts, even if its just anecdotal, that back it up.
We have a poster named DonSoutherland. He's one of, if not THE, most respected poster on this board. Part of this is because he almost never speaks an opinion without backing it up with fact. BUT, at this point, because he's so respected if he simply came out and gave his opinion on something with it being completely basis he'd probably have a number of people actually give it credance because he's developed a reputation and built up the credibility for his opinion to actually matter.
For those that haven't built that up, for your opinion, your judgement calls, to matter at all on this board, you need to do number 2.
Does this mean you can't have an opinion? Absolutely not. You're COMPLETELY free to have whatever opinion or judgement call you want. However, people are completely free to ridicule, deride, and ignore your opinion as baseless and not credible when its...well...seems to be baseless and not credible. You're coming into the forum and talking as you are is no different than someone coming up to you off the street and telling people that lizardfolk are controlling our government. You've not been here to build up credibility or respect in regards to your opinion so there's zero reason why any poster should take your opinion, when tis not backed up by anything, as something seriously worth considering.
To many people seem to have this mixed up notion that because an opinion does not NEED to be proven, means that there's no such thing as a POOR opinion. There is. And on a forum dedicated to political discussion you can't be surprised, offended, or upset when people call you to task for baseless opinions because frankly there'd be no use debating something where one person goes "This is my opinion because its my opinion" and the other side says "no, you're wrong, because of this this this" and the person responds "nope, its my opinion".