“Muh opinion” screams the inept, unemployed, uneducated, typical plebeian. Like a clichéd redneck from a horror movie, they’re annoying, legion and above all, wrong.

     What is it that cause these people to be so clinically obtuse? Were they raised that way, are they arrogant, do they have lower I.Q.’s or is it something else?

     A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, your opinion didn’t always matter. You had to have credentials or clout, something to back your opinion as more than just, well, opinion. Opinions were like the gold exchange, and Gold, or in this clout/education/credentials, gave opinions value. Somewhere by the 1980’s, it became worse, as a second generation, where majority sheeple thought their opinion always mattered, have four year degrees and think that’s the equivalent of a doctorate. A doctorate, be it MD or Ph.D normally allows for you to make changes in your field. Now some fields aren’t as anal over this. Science comes to mind, as a discovery that hold muster is a discovery none the less. Yet, not a single one of these peons in something outside of science, would be allowed into the operating room with a qualified surgeon, to quarter back such a procedure. Why? Because knowledge matters and the hubris surrounding opinion is at an all-time high. In fact, the only real way to get an opinion to matter is to have credentials or clout. Opinion backed by nothing is like fiat currency and the more vapid opinions out there, the more devalued real and valid opinions are. Yet, we as a society give these “people” the ability to drive business into the ground on nothing more than devalued opinion and emotional outburst.

     It’s no wonder the college degree is also devalued, as they’ve allowed for people with little to no I.Q. to obtain one, simplify to profit off the ignorance of people who have and add no other value to the current environment, yet still want to strut around thinking their opinions are like that of an actual expert. Now, part of this isn’t new, but I am putting into perspective just what two major generations of arrogant assholes are doing to the world, because of a severe mental defect, that is “muh opinion”.

     How bad can such a thing be? You might be asking yourself, so we will start with something a lot of people in various age ranges still enjoy, the video game. Remember when most video games that were blatant cash grabs like Jekyll and Hyde for the NES, were shipped finished products with little bugs or glitches in the game? Now if you’re lucky, a game has a downloadable patch waiting for you when you finally put the disc into it. Why is this? Because video game companies used to have in house testing to ensure most bugs were found, before shipping the game to stores. Part of this was caused by shitty cash grab games and consumer blow back. This is why most companies that produce books have editors. Even if you’re like me and catch 99% of mistakes before you publish the piece, you might still accidentally miss one or two. Now imagine how many might be missed in the rush to a deadline? Now though, game companies don’t even need to pay testers, they have the opportunity for closed beta testing and give access to certain people to basically be editors for the duration the testing. I know, because I was one of those people, in the closed beta testing for The Elder Scrolls Online, and found a few bugs myself, which I reported. I don’t know how much that might of really contributed to a polish final product, but ultimately, such a thing could only happen in today’s day and age, where the overly opinionated want to feel useful by giving or entitled to give their opinion. This directly contributes to these downloadable updates as opposed to an already finished and polished game.

     The next thing it brings me to is movies. Everyone has a subjective opinion on what they ultimately would like out of a flick and more specially, sequels and remakes. I have dozens of ideas myself for movies that weren’t my own, because excitement can lead to creativity on any front. The innumerable amount of Nightmare on Elm St sequels I have created in my head and are insanely detailed, outnumber actual movies in that series. None of these are going to get created, but they exist and this is to be expected of any enjoyed movie and there is nothing wrong with this in and of itself. When it does cause problems, its entitled fans whom feel a need to cause backlash because the Ghostbusters now have vaginas. If you could only see my face palm right now. While I don’t think Ghostbusters 2016 needed an all female cast, I also knew I had no strong opinion against it, either. The biggest problem with this was that Feig and company were essentially doing what the original was criticized for and that was leaving out a segment of the population. No matter what you write, though, some people are always going to be left out. Not even because you want to, but because the characters would serve no purpose to the plot.

     Film makers are no longer allowed to make the stories they want to tell without mass consensus, of which there isn’t any without entire groups of entitled fanboys/fangirls complaining. Complaining and criticism are not the same thing. Critic is normally valid and hopefully constructive. Although, it can be mixed with subjective opinion, such as I don’t like the Stormtroopers helmets in The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi.

     These are just two things, from which opinion is ruining everything. Who are these people to even be doing such? There is a big difference from consumer backlash, the act of saying “Hey, this product you sold us is faulty” and consumer entitlement, which is where they think enough dragging their feet like a toddler throwing a tantrum in the store, is going to cause a product that isn’t even out yet, to improve. Now, I have loved WWE since I was a kid and not everything they make is a winner, I have no problems letting people know my thoughts, but when it gets to a point of being too horrible, I just walk away. I don’t expect WWE to conform to my wishes for the product, or anything else. Ultimately, I do not own it, it is not mine to direct, unless of course, I bothered to step into such a role by applying for it.

     What we have just seen is two different ways the damage of unmitigated, unrestricted opinion is causing and while you, the consumer, are more than welcome to vote with your money, I think the attempt at forcing others to make stuff that only you want to see and in the opposite spectrum, destroying jobs of people who once did this for a living is still hurting every industry around and was partially responsible for the recession of 2008 and will mostly likely be responsible for another within a decades time, because why would a business pay to keep outdated aspects like in house game testing, when they can outsource to you, the consumer for free? Why would they bother to make more movies, when the “fans” are just going to bitch and complain about it? Why bother anymore, when control is going to people, that are, more often than not, barley qualified to flip burgers at a McDonald’s, let alone helm a multi-million dollar company or movie.

     In the end, the easiest way to strengthen our world, is to start at the opinion and demand more from those who throw it out so willingly without credibility, competency, experience, or other to give that “opinion” some real gravitas. Even politics has become a joke because it’s basically just casting an opinion, no real diligence is used to vett a candidate. Which is a great analogy to use, because the unrestricted, uneducated opinion is the online equivalent to the low information voter and shouldn’t be taken seriously by those whose sole purpose is to hear themselves scream, in hopes something gets done.

     Within 15 years, though, I think we may reach an equilibrium on this, because in the past, companies were too anti-consumer, shoving out whatever they could, enmass and getting away with it. Now companies cannot really innovate or do what they think is right, without the consumer breathing down their neck, which is the total opposite end of the spectrum. Perhaps with time, we will have a balance between consumer and corporation, where the fans concerns are taken into account but the companies get to direct themselves and make the products they want to see. After all, a company is nothing without its consumers and you’re opinion means shit, without their product.