One of my pet peeves is when someone expresses an opinion that they’re simply passing along from someone else, one they’ve put absolutely no thought into themselves, it’s just because so-and-so said it.
I don’t care whether that so-and-so is Ann Coulter, Arianna Huffington, Rush Limbaugh, the late Molly Ivins (not that she’s stating her opinions much anymore), Dr. Laura, Dr. Phil, Martha Stewart, Oprah, your priest, rabbi, minister, or your uncle Joe. Think for yourself! Oh, yes, certainly, it’s fine to take the opinions of others into account in forming your own opinion, but, ultimately, it should be your opinion, which you have put thought into, based on actual facts, not just other people’s opinions and certainly on the only the “facts” that they’ve already filtered and put their own spin on.
I know people who voted against John Kerry in 2004 because he supported gay marriage. Rather, they were told he supported it. In fact, he did not support it. There were plenty of valid reasons not to vote for Kerry (and I’m saying this as someone who did vote for him), but that was not one of them.
I know someone who once voted for a particular presidential candidate because her rabbi said in a sermon that he would be better for Israel than his opponent would. It was just his opinion, based on who knows what, but because he spoke from the pulpit, she listened. The irony is that this was the 1976 election, and she voted for Gerald Ford instead of Jimmy Carter. Carter of course, went on to have a disastrous term in office, BUT he brokered the Camp David accord between Israel and Egypt.
(And don’t get me started about people who vote in elections based on a single issue! I’ll save that for a possible later blog entry.)
Then there are the people who simply parrot what famous people say. Do they have any idea whether those people are getting their facts straight, if they’re even dealing with facts at all? Are they in any way qualified to speak about the subject? Dr. Laura Schlessinger, for example, gives psychological advice, but her doctorate is in physiology, not psychology, and a lot of what she says is based on her political and religious views, not psychology at all. Dr. Phil McGraw does have a PhD in clinical psychology, but that does not qualify him to give, for example, diet and financial advice. Oprah Winfrey? She seems like a nice person, but what exactly are her qualifications on, well, anything? Rush Limbaugh? He’s a college dropout who became a radio DJ. I could go on and on, but I’m not qualified to do so. 
Now, you might say, it’s like deciding whether to see a movie based on the review of someone who has similar tastes to yours, someone whose previous advice has been spot on for you. Well, no, it’s not like that at all. Deciding whether or not to pay to see the movie is one thing, but the correct analogy is saying you liked or disliked it based entirely on that review, not on what you yourself thought of it.
So, please, think for yourself. And not just because Mike Rosenberg said so!
