[evandale]

What's your conception of an opinion?

To me am opinion is a belief you have that's not based on facts.

Why do you want your government to have a belief not based on facts? Furthermore, why would you want the government to push this belief on its people?

Lastly why would you care about the opinion (remember: an opinion is a belief that isn't based on facts) of a corporation to the point that you'd defend their right to make statements that aren't factual?

[afavour]

> To me am opinion is a belief you have that's not based on facts.

> Why do you want your government to have a belief not based on facts?

There's some kind of fallacy at work here, you're establishing what your personal definition of something is then arguing with OP while taking your personal belief as fact.

"Opinions are not based on facts" definitely isn't a universally accepted definition of an opinion. An opinion doesn't have to be based on facts but it's not precluded from it.

[evandale]

If there is a fallacy then you need tell me your definition of an opinion or the widely accepted definition.

I can work with you if we have a common understanding but we're not at that point yet.

[afavour]

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/opinion

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/opini...

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/opinion

[evandale]

Can you please just summarize? There's way too many definitions and this isn't helpful.

I gave you my opinion on what an opinion is, now why can't you return the favour instead of throwing thousands of words back in my face with no nuance or context?

If you're not interested in the conversation that's fine too, but just say so.

[afavour]

I won't be replying any further to this thread. Reading it back I had the realization that once we've gotten to the point where we're debating the meaning of the word "opinion" it is so far off-topic as to be useless to the discussion at hand, frankly. All the best.

[evandale]

Alright, I thought I was trying to end the debate and find common ground but you didn't want to tell me in your own words the definition you use for opinion.

You had me define it in my own words and was able to tell me I'm wrong but you never gave me the same chance.

There's a reason why people throw their hands up and say "it's just my opinion!" when they're blatantly wrong about something. It's a phase used to indicate they don't care about facts and they don't have to defend their position, which I thought was the common definition of opinion: a position one holds even when the facts say they're wrong.

[emodendroket]

An opinion is a belief which is not itself objectively factual. Factual information can certainly be a basis for them. If we go back the advertising example, we could take two objective facts about advertising:

* online advertising allows consumers to learn about new products and services

* advertising incentivizes user data collection in order that it may be more effective.

From just these two facts one could easily come to a pro- or anti-advertising position based on their values and the relative weights they choose to put on each fact.