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Old May 29th 12, 10:55 AM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Mxsmanic
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Posts: 9,169
Default Please ignore Mx

Nomen Nescio writes:

I don't know MX, but he seems to be surrounded by fools who expect
blind acceptance of opinions (expressed as fact), as opposed to using
good logic or sound math.


Most people adopt their opinions from others, rather than develop their own
opinions based on facts they research or encounter themselves. It's easier to
simply copy someone else's opinions wholesale, and it requires less
intelligence.

Unfortunately, adopting someone else's opinions makes a person highly
vulnerable to manipulation, and impairs the ability to make sound decisions.
It often goes hand in hand with allowing emotion to control one's behavior,
rather than reason.

A person who copies his opinions cannot defend them, since he has no idea how
they were arrived at. And if those opinions are long-standing, anything that
threatens them can be uncomfortable and destabilizing, such that the person
who holds them may react emotionally and irrationally to any request, implied
or direct, to defend such opinions.

I am good at recognizing opinions that have been copied from those of other
people, and I ask people holding such opinions to defend them. Of course, they
cannot, and so a considerable debate ensues, which they invariably lose.
Ideally, this would incite them to start developing their own opinions, but
few people actually progress in that way.