T.M.I.

No, not "Too Much Information."

Today it means "Transient Moment of Idiocy," and I coin that phrase to describe an increasingly common and increasingly tiresome sort of behavior I am seeing all over the place -- the situation of a normally intelligent and well-reasoned person suddenly leaving the reservation to claim and defend some truly oddball and often offensive opinion which you find intellectually and ethically repugnant.

I'll not even bother describing specific examples of such, as surely some friend or other will read that example and say "HEY... that bastard is talking about ME...!" and to be perfectly honest, right now I'm just not in a mood to argue with such folks. They have a right to their opinions, and I have a right to sit in judgment and label them a booger-eating moron for having and then publicly expressing such dipshittery.

No problemo.

What does seem more troubling is the underlying thought process which drives and excuses such behavior: the idea that all opinions are somehow equivalent or acceptable, or that by labeling something as "My Opinion" you are then somehow absolved of being judged FOR that opinion, or that others are then somehow morally compelled to give a rat's caboose. If I sat here and howled that "THE MOON IS MADE OF OLD SOCKS!" or "COLUMBUS NEVER DISCOVERED AMERICA -- IT WAS ALL FAKED BY THE LISBON PRESS!," all but a comfortingly small number of folks would rightly consider me a brainless idiot. yet there are plenty of folks four-footing around expressing bits of "thought" no less moronic and laughable, and when anyone suggests that maybe -- perhaps -- these people would be better off sucking on their own tongues rather than trying out for lead alto brayer in the jackass choir, the idiots usually trot out "hey -- I'm entitled to my opinion!"

Yes you are.

And the rest of us are then entitled to point and laugh and mutter "what a friggin dumbass."

I bet you think this song is about you... you're so vain...
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proud owner of a timeshare on the moral high ground B