Opinions

If you look for them there are a lot of strange discussions happening on Amazon in the form of comments on reviews. A 'guy' calling himself James Uscroft 'The Voice in the Wilderness', posted an extremely long review of the boxed set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on which various people had posted comments mainly disagreeing with what was said. Fair enough you would have thought - after all reviews are simply people's opinions of that book, film or whatever. I have not seen any of Buffy so I'm not really in a position to comment on the review but I was intrigued by the comments which degenerated basically into a slanging match.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RRTOAEWPGVDW9/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#RRTOAEWPGVDW9

Out of curiosity I skimmed through this individual's other reviews which included one of the boxed set of Keeping up Appearances - the BBC comedy series. I think this series is very true to life and I have met people like all the characters in it. I agree that the whole thing would collapse if anyone told Hyacinth what they thought of her. But this chap James seems to have missed the point of the whole thing. We're all hamstrung by people like Hyacinth because we're too polite to tell her what we're really thinking. To me that's one of the things that makes a society civilised; it's not what is wrong with English society as this guy seems to think. He is a fan of the unemployed Onslow who to him is a true working class philosopher. This comment alone probably says more about the reviewer than the programme.

I posted what I felt to be a fairly mild comment that I liked being English and that not telling people what you think of them makes a civilised society. To which he replied that my argument was so flawed it was hardly worth responding to, but then he went on to respond at length.

This started me thinking about facts and opinions. I wouldn't ever say my opinion is the only correct one to hold. Everyone's opinion is just that - their opinion. There's nothing right or wrong about it. 'I disagree with everything you say, but I would defend to the death your right to say it.' Is the world getting less tolerant of the opinions of others? It seems so to me.