Unwanted Opinions: People Who Express Their Opinion As If It Were A “universal Truth “

Some people just love to give their unwanted opinions. People who will “help” everyone by telling them what they obviously need to hear.

They are the kind of people with a big ego, who sell us their opinions as if they are absolute truths. And they always use a condescending, critical tone.

“Obviously you always go for the wrong guys. I tell you, they will be unfaithful to you at the first opportunity. ” “I say this to you for your own good. Just get that idea out of your head because it will be too much for you. ” “These things happen to you because you have no personality”

Many of us have heard things like this before. It is important to remember that even though we have the right to express our opinion, it is wrong to use it to hurt, humiliate or look down on someone.

At the same time, we must know that opinions are only personal expressions. They are simple reflections of the emotional and cognitive world of the people who publish them.

But, as Leonardo Da Vinci said, the worst mistake people can make is believing in the rush of their own opinions. Because there is no worse ignorance than when someone begins to look at their personal judgments as universal truths.

Opinions can act as handcuffs

Opinions can often be what shocks us. Let’s think about it for a moment. When someone expresses opinions about us, they do so from their personal reality, experiences and values.

Everything is still normal here, that is to be expected, and we understand that. However, we can also add it to this process psychology calls ” attention deficit ” or “affirmative disorders”.

That is, there are people who only perceive what they want to see. People who limit themselves to just observing some aspects to spit out inaccurate and extremely predetermined assessments.

So, the so-called theory of rational choice also tells us that many heuristics we add to our thoughts and opinions respond to simple ” intuitions,” simple evaluations that lead to errors.

This undoubtedly helps explain why some people use their personal handcuffs to create conclusions as dubious as: “women are weak by nature.” Or, “children need a firm hand to learn.” Or even “anyone who practices a religion other than me is a terrorist.”

So we should be very careful around people who use their opinions as if they are unique, exclusive and universal truths. Because nothing defines anyone as much as the comments they give.

On the other hand, something you have probably seen is how someone who spits out these crucial and harmful opinions tends to react very negatively, they may even see it as a personal attack when we try to disprove their arguments with logical, reasonable principles.

They will not accept or listen to them, because the mental handcuffs form a very rigid thought pattern. In fact, many people define such people as real “trolls”.

If you are going to give me your opinion, let it be useful, please

We all can and should give our opinion on what we want. But we must also do so from a position of respect, not from the throne of offensiveness.

It does not matter if it is truthful and painful; If it is useful and critical, it is welcome.

So, we try to control evaluations that, although we do not understand it, come straight from the amygdala. The place where we feel emotions like fear, hatred or rage. Where we give our opinions with the intention of harming, putting labels on or looking down on others. We do it with the explicit desire to be superior to others.

On the other hand, society loves strong opinions. But they are weakly supported. Think of opinions like: “Vote for me, otherwise the world will be in chaos.” Or “buy this product and you will be happy.” “Get thinner, dress like this, do this, and you will have social success.” We must learn to think differently.

Let us learn to free ourselves a little from our opinions. That way we can see what else is out there.

For example, let’s not tell our friend that the dress she’s wearing is awful. Let’s first ask ourselves if she’s wearing it because she likes it. Or if it’s because she just dresses differently than us.

Let us remember the useful filter in Aristotle`s three truths:

• Are you absolutely sure that what you are going to say is true?
• Is that what you are supposed to say well?
• Will the opinion you are about to share be specifically useful to that person?

If the answer to these three questions is yes, let’s do so. Let us take the step of giving our opinion to improve our coexistence, practice mutual respect and create stronger relationships.