Opinions on...lack of opinions

What do you think or feel about somebody who doesn't have an opinion about a topic you're interested in or that you yourself feel very strongly about?

Do you think they are ignorant and that if they learned more they'd develop an opinion?

Do you think they don't share your values and so you evaluate their personal worth because of it?

Do you assume that if they don't have an opinion about your topics that they must have opinions about others and you try to investigate?

What do you do when you encounter somebody who doesn't have an opinion? How does that make you feel about them?

*I'm asking out of idle curiosity. I've been reading about ontology and epistemology the past couple of days, so I'm wondering about how people think*

I don't think about it too much.. Some people just don't understand the topic, or want to contribute to it for personal reasons. Not everybody wants to be a part of a discussion or a topic, some would just rather observe it, and move on without really being a part of it.

I have no opinion on that...

Maybe they just don't have a clue.

When it's an interest than I would think they don't know about it and are learning or they don't care what my interest are.

When it's a strongly held belife on something that's life or death or eternal life or death it would make me think they are just careless and immature to be indifferent.

Doesn't phase me. There are some things I have no or little opinion on. My reasons can be a lack of interest to a lack if knowledge. Sometimes I have an opinion and don't feel a need to share it.

It's been interesting reading up on what people know and how they come to know it. Not generally a topic I've ever given much thought to, but now it's on my radar so I have questions about it since most other people I know have more opinions about things than I do. Thanks for all the responses so far.

I've never met anyone who had no opinions at all either. I've met quite a few that had very few though,and most of the time, their lack of opinions were on topics that seemed to be sources of argument for most people, so I got along good with them. For me, CC has the highest ratio of opinion holding people I've ever seen, and I think that's interesting.

Some things (actually many things on here) just aren't worth the
hassle.

Proverbs 17:1 NIV
[1] Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife.

Proverbs 21:19 NKJV
[19] Better to dwell in the wilderness, Than with a contentious and angry woman.


Proverbs 3:30 NKJV
[30] Do not strive with a man without cause, If he has done you no harm.

I haven't the faintest clue what those are... and I'm not going to cheat and google them either.. or maybe I will... we'll see..

AHA!! So, prior to this, if I had asked you about it..... you would have had no opinion about it?

BUSTED!

now, seriously.... there are quite a few topics that I find that I really don't have a firm opinion on (which, unfortunately doesn't always prevent me from speaking to them...)

So my answer to your questions would be.... it depends on the topic being discussed. If we are discussing an obscure topic, perhaps something I'm interested in, but not many others are, I would not be the least surprised to have someone tell me they have no opinion on the subject.

If we were discussing the past presidential election, etc... I would be very surprised to hear that response....even though many people are simply NOT political at all, and go through life without giving it any thought.

Did I make my answer confusing enough?

This guy said it pretty well.....



This applies to the forum pretty well....

being informed is tough in a world full of willfully ignorant people...........

I had to look them up when I first came across them in a journal article. They aren't commonly used unless you run in those circles.

One thing I have noticed is that in certain settings, I see (hear) more declarations than questions. I notice people speaking with authority and I wonder where they got the knowledge to speak from the position of an expert. I don't see (hear) a lot of people (almost nobody in fact) that asks questions. Hard for me to understand because I ask questions all the time. Even when I think I'm right about something, there's always the question in the back of my mind "yeah Jon, but what if you're wrong???"

So, I'm curious how people come to know what they know, and how much of what they learn is "enough" to register in their mind that they can speak with authority on the topics they speak about.