Someone (presumably a great person) once said, “Opinions are like wrist watches. Each shows a different time; and everyone believes that their time is accurate.” Having an opinion isn’t really a bad thing. A good conversationalist always has an opinion about everything.

Opinions are an individual’s perception of a fact or an event, while Oponions are opinions that stink, and make you cry!

The reaction to the recent decision to star Ben Affleck as Batman in the upcoming movie has stirred quite an upheaval with die-hard fans opposing the move calling it bad for the movie franchise. One comment on this Forbes article read –

“… The truth is Affleck is a smug looking Boston frat boy, totally antithetical to the dark, tortured ‘Gotham’ nature of the character….Besides that, he’s one of the worst actors I (and a lot of other people, apparently) have ever seen in film

IMO the only role that suited Affleck was the self satisfied jerk-boy stockbroker in ‘Boiler Room’…Because that’s the kind of character his persona exudes …”

While another said –

“… I don’t care about how much money this movie makes or how much success the actor playing Batman has had. All I care about is that the part is done right and I just don’t feel Affleck is the right person for it. Could I be wrong? Yes, but my opinion will be good enough for me until Ben proves me wrong …”

No points for guessing the oponion among the above comments. The internet is full of such oponions. It has in fact, become very frustrating to read comments on popular websites – especially Youtube. There is also a twitter account (@AvoidComments) dedicated to discourage people from reading comments online.

It is easy to be misinformed now more than ever because of how information and access to it has grown in multitude over the last few decades. In my opinion, opinions are good to have. As long as you re-visit them often, put them to test with intellectual discussions, wring them off of falsity and you are willing to change them when the truth-brick is hurled at you! One quote by James Lowell springs to mind –

The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinion.

P.S.: Here’s an article that rightly sums up how silly the whole reaction to the “Ben Affleck as Batman” scenario is.