Has Public Opinion ‘Jumped the Shark’?

Opinion is routinely weaponized against research and expertise through a complex network of human actors and non-human algorithms.

Could our civic duty include starving the misinformation ecosystem by pressing ‘pause’ on our all-too-human need to connect through the spread of opinion?

Instead, what would it look like to use grade-school library skills and cite the references that support our prolific punditry?

Or perhaps replace our opinions with a reflective silence and keep opinions to ourselves?

If we can say that the influence of a 20th Century opinion was weighted by one’s intersectional experience and position in society, then what’s the rubric for the power of opinion in the 21st Century?

Opinions disseminated via a myriad of media platforms accumulate logarithmic influence, a digital ‘butterfly effect.’

Opinions are dangerous, and as Dirty Harry Callahan once said, “Well, opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one.”

Instead, I turn towards world leaders with far more experience than I to provide clarity:

“Speak the truth. Speak it clearly. Speak it with compassion. Speak it with empathy for what folks are going through. The biggest mistake any us can make in these situations is to misinform, particularly when we’re requiring people to make sacrifices and take actions that might not be their natural inclination,” said President Obama as he shared his perspective on the power of honesty and evidence during this time.