I want to be fair here, as fun as it can be to point out Steve_Greg's bursts of anger, after the "opinion debate" thread, he actually did send me a message which resulted in a calm and rational debate continuing the debacle from the thread more like adults should, where he actually did acknowledge that maybe the answer wasn't as simple as "him being right and me being wrong" and that this was a result of us being used to different phrasings.
From: SindriV
To: Steve_Greg
Date: 6/18/2014 6:12:09 AM
Both examples sound equally like Hitler to me.
Of course each word in a sentence as a meaning, that's why I don't say "my opinion is", because the fact that I am saying it shows it is my opinion, therefore making that part of the sentence meaningless.
From: Steve_Greg
To: SindriV
Date: 6/18/2014 4:59:30 AM
eh, for me, the two expressions have different meanings altogether.
"my opinion is that meat is disgusting" = your opinions. Just an opinion.
"meat is disgusting" = I somehow automatically feel evilness emanating from the phrase, the desire of the one who said it to stir things up . Opinion or not , I see it as something said out of hate for meat . It's like you want meat exterminated from Earth.
A slightly bigger example:
"my opinion is that Jews must die" . Not many Jews will like me now. I could probably join a neonazi clan that does nothing else than shave themselves and show their butts to Jews. But nothing too serious.
"Jews must die" . Do I sound like Hitler yet? While an answer to the above would be " Your opinions are fucked up" , the answer to this one would be "CALL THE POLICE, A RACIST ANTISEMITIC BIGOT IS ON THE LOOSE".
I've been taught that each word in a phrase has to have a meaning. One word less will change the meaning. One extra word will also change the meaning. Heck, reading one word with a different accent can change the meaning (I think this only applies to Romanian).
I'm actively jealous on those who just say part of what they want to say and everyone else just knows the rest of the phrase. (especially Cockney people)
From: SindriV
To: Steve_Greg
Date: 6/17/2014 4:51:28 PM
If I say to someone "my opinion is that meat is disgusting" it will have the exact same effect as if I say "meat is disgusting". You literally just phrased the second phrase in a friendlier way to make it seem like your point is valid. Without doing so (making the "my opinion is" the ONLY difference", the sentence has the same effect.
Still, instead of pointing at others, you are now at least acknowledging that at least part of the problem might on you instead of everyone else being wrong, which you were kind of doing earlier. Kudos on that.
From: Steve_Greg
To: SindriV
Date: 6/17/2014 4:09:42 PM
his answer was disappointing. He practically confirmed he is "moderatrolling" but he's not the topic, so , back to what I was saying.
How am I supposed to make the difference between what you say and what you mean?
Let's say you have a bad opinion on meat. So you say "Meat is disgusting!" Let's consider that I do not know what meat is, as i'm poor and never tasted it (just assuming). Seeing you claiming that meat is disgusting will make me believe too that meat is disgusting even before eating it. Of course i'll have to eat to see for myself but I will already have the pre-defined idea from you that it's disgusting. Congratulations, you unwillingly enforced your views on me!
People who haven't formed an opinion yet are prone to be influenced by others' opinion. I say this from my own experience. And from the experiences of my family and friends. And people on the internet. Too many people on the internet. Especially when you say " meat is disgusting!" instead of "I'd rather not eat meat, I think it's disgusting".
So, once you've stated something, an opinion, I can do what the internet does with opinions. In short, discard them. But, if it doesn't really seem like an opinion, I feel it's contradicting what I say. And since I know what I just said is truth, and because of my own personal nature, I take it as an insult. (I probably should go to a psychologist or something. I know my problem but I'm not qualified to solve it. Now where to find one......)If what you said had the "i think / my opinion is/it's probably/maybe it's/it could be ", then the conflict wouldn't be, because, while opinions can affect others, the impact is minimal. But since it did not contain those words, I feared that others would believe it word by word ( call it paranoia but it happened to me IRL too. And an old Romanian saying says "he who failed precautions once will check for them even when not needed" ), and since it contained a lie about me, which i dislike, I wanted to prevent it. And it went downhill from there.
Maybe it's the fault of my mindset. I myself did once what you did here: said something without warning everyone it's just a harmless opinion (it applies in Romanian too. AND HOW!).... And believe it or not, I have to come every two months to the local police station for declarations because of it. So now I don't understand how come others still do it. I don't know how to feel about it. I put a barrier for myself because I saw it leads to unwanted consequences for me, but it seems that others, in this case, you, are not affected by these consequences, and I don't know what to do. This "it goes without saying" is an expression that I want to remove from my vocabulary , to remove this habit, while others seem to add this habit and have no problems.
