Because right now 'fact' seems to be a dirty word and 'patriot' seems like carte-blanche. Far too often I'm seeing those prsonal insults flying at those with othr opinions before any real debate can start... and the best case scenario now seems to be merely agreeing to disagree. Even that carries with it a lightness and dilution that remain worrying... because the one thing we all forget is that there is a difference between the right to have and express an opinion and how much that opinion is actually worth. Net access is available to many and blog entries (such as this one) are little more than a click away... but that equal access doesn't give your opinion equal weight in any argument. I've been told "Well, you say this and I say that, so who is to say who's right?' Well, the facts are.
Because facts don't change. Interpretation and extrapolation are the things that change. We all know that statistics can be both true and wholly unreliable and distorted given on how you choose to use them, but our opinions don't change the specific facts at the heart of it. For instance: I can believe the moon is made of cheese and preach its cheddaryness to all and sundry; I can have 100,000 people with placards claiming how right I am and how goshdran tasty it is. But if a guy who has studied lunar science for decades, been to the moon, picked up a sample, brought it home, analysed and can present it to me saying it's NOT made of cheese, then it's NOT a case of 50/50. I have every right to hold true to my stiltonesque belief system - but all evidence to the contrary suggests to the truly impartial that I'm DEMONSTRABLY wrong. My opinion isn't as valid as a fact.
So what everyone needs to do is work out how much of their belief system is their opinion and what is an immutable fact . What is rhetoric and spin and what is an impartial observation based on study of every single source available on the subject. And don't ask someone else to be fair and balanced on your behalf, don't merely cite a tv show or a single newspaper report, otherwise you're abdicating your responsibility to be called a rational thinking human being rather than a sheep. If you aren't interested in doing the by-definition extensive footwork and the mindwork then it's easy... simply don't express an opinion - whatever it is - because if you don't know why you think something, then yelling randomly anyway means you are (and liable to look) stupid. You don't have to be Olympic-level articulate... but you need to be able to speak in coherent sentences and join the dots without getting abstractly disorientated with either.
It doesn't mean we all have to agree, but it does mean we should know why we don't.
Or as someone much more eloquently put it at the rally:
