I Like Provable Facts Not Opinions

The title says it all. I want provable facts not opinions. However, we’ve spent a few generations ‘teaching’ students to value their opinions over facts by using a semantic based argument. What do I mean? “Based on these premises, we can infer” blah, blah, blah. That works in logic and what if scenarios but is best suited for the collegiate level.

I wrote an entire paper for college using that type of logic. So I know full well how a person can take a pile of BS, dig up resources that agree to quote, and turn it in as if it is a wonderful document. Boiled down though, BS is still BS no matter how pretty you make it. It is entertainment at best but far from factually accurate.

The devil is in the details of what the word infer, inference and premise mean. Infer is “to derive by reasoning; conclude or judge from premises or evidence” or to put it bluntly “to guess; speculate; surmise.” Inference is “the reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation.” Premise means “a statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn.”

I’ll refer you back to my prior post on assuming. To restate a phrase I’ve come to dislike enough to make it a pet peeve of mine, based on opinions we take for granted, we can make another opinion. Opinion+opinion=Opinion. Opinion+fact=Opinion.

It is the height of arrogance or deception to conclude an opinion should override facts. What more is it to insert one’s opinion into policy and education and make it be what others should believe because that opinion is worded to sound like a fact?

-MatureKid