It seems in our society we have an over abundance in belief that everyone is entitled to their opinion and they fall back on the freedom of speech (note I have already pointed out some of the fallacies in the freedom of speech here).  This basis of everyone being entitled to their opinion becomes incredibly problematic when we look at the huge influx of intentionally fake news stories, the lack of desire to truly educate one’s self politically, the lack of true political education within our education system, and the lack of existence of spaces for dialectical discourse to take place.

Opinions by definition is a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.  The free range of the exchange of ideas that are not necessarily based on fact or knowledge is a huge detriment to the growth of the collective consciousness of our society.  These things should not be encouraged and should not be allowed in any way shape or form.  I am not for freedom of speech in the liberal way that it has been applied in the USA.  Here in the USA certain ideas get propagated and protected even if they have no factual basis because of who says them and the access of those people.  For example the KKK has zero, count them, zero political prisoners from the research I have done.  On the other hand the Black Panthers have had more than I can keep count of, the Young Lords, the Macheteros, FALN, the Communist Party of the United States, American Indian Movement, all have a plethora of political prisoners and have a drastically lower history of violence as well as a justified rationale for rising up against a system of oppression while the KKK simply seeks to uphold it’s “opinion” that whiteness and hetero-normative patriarchy = supremacy and use that justification to protect the capitalistic interest of whiteness.

These structures need not be replicated if they can yield such ugly results.  True we do still need places where popular ideas can be challenged and fleshed out for their validity but they should be done through dialectical discourse.  dialectical discourse is described as discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to establish the truth through reasoned arguments.  As you can see this process will allow for truth to reveal itself only if the participants use reasoned and logic based arguments to defend their stance not the idea of “I don’t know but this is my opinion on it.” which is a rationale held way to often.

It is also clear that not many people have a firm backing in true dialectical dialogue, a firm backing in logic and how to identify logical fallacies, a firm backing in how to construct an argument, and honestly not many people have a desire to.  They rather sit on their computer shoot off a couple unverified and unjustified comments on Facebook based on their opinion and how they “feel” with no real verification. I have been guilty of such behavior myself and it sways others you may be influential on who may believe that you have done some research on this topic to guide your thought when in fact you have not.

With this we need to truly engage in popular education which provides the basis of these tools to people and we have to create the mechanisms that allow for responsible and dialectical speech  to occur.  Until then free speech will continue to be a detriment and a tool for misinformation and the rise of fascism and fascist like figures and regimes based on propaganda.

I challenge you all to no longer hold so true to “opinions” and instead research philosophy and how to construct logically arguments and identify logically fallacies (here is a good start), no longer hold your opinions that are not based in dialectical discourse so dear to your identity, and not be afraid to say “I don’t know” in given situations where you don’t in fact know and wait to gather necessary information from credible sources before you formulate an argument to present to others for dialectical critique.  Until you do all that you are NOT entitled to your opinion.

With Revolutionary Love,

Sobreviviente