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I don’t care — you don’t have to have an opinion about everything
Sometimes I feel like everyone has an opinion about everything. And everyone demands that the other person takes a stand, no matter how complex the subject is. Don’t let it fool you and say more often: I don’t care.
Let’s be honest: How much do you know about the Yemen conflict, genetic engineering, cruises, lady gaga, or the species-appropriate keeping of cats? You may still know about one or two of these topics. But about all of them? Hard to believe.
Let’s assume that this is true for most people. Then how is it that some people judge everything and everyone? Why do we feel compelled to take a stand on such questions when someone asks us about them?
The herd instinct
Everybody knows it: You open Facebook and scroll through your timeline. Suddenly you discover the thread of a good friend with many comments.
Curiously, you click on the post and notice that your friend has spoken about a topic that is being hotly debated everywhere. The comments can be assigned to two camps: One group disagrees with your friend’s opinion, and the other defends him.
The more comments are added, the rougher the tone becomes. Initial insults are exchanged. One declares the other either stupid, naive or radical. You notice that both sides somehow seem to have good arguments, but you can’t judge them because you know absolutely nothing about this topic.
So you close the thread and deal with something else. A few minutes later, you get a push notification when a friend has tagged you in a post. You click on the message and end up in the thread you just left.
Your friend’s friends will call their troops together to win the opinion of the thread, and you will be asked to express yourself.
But you don’t have an opinion? What now?
The first reflex is usually to join the opinion of your circle of friends and take sides for their opinion. But then you must defend your supposed opinion immediately against the other group because they will…
