Americans are ruled by the "Tyranny of Popular Opinion".

Americans are ruled by popular opinion. We talk a lot and understand little.

For Example: Music

Some people think rap is bad, others think rap is good. Ask a person why they think rap is bad or good and they will find it difficult to explain themselves, or, at best, they will give vague and superficial explanations.

Granted that opinion has existed for ages, we Americans have taken it to a new level. We live for our opinions and love our bias. We have taken it so far that we are afraid of truth. Why is this?

It is very simple, we care more about what other people think of us then ourselves.

I recently got into a debate with a so-called devout Christian. At the end I proclaimed that Christianity is the worst religion to see her reaction. She said you don't know that. I then said God is fake. She screamed that's not true. I asked why. She yelled you have to have faith. I could have kept going but I would have received more of these "quick-exit" answers. Her screaming and yelling, along with her answers, told me all I needed to know. She dedicated her life to Christianity without knowing why. These are our times. This is America. Dedication without Explanation.

First I will post a few definitions I will use throughout the round. All from www.m-w.com

rule-to exercise control over especially by curbing or restraining

tyranny- oppressive power especially oppressive power exerted by government

Although many people's opinions are swayed by the popular opinion, that opinion is neither tyrannical, nor oppressive. The opinion does not rule, restrain, or curb, and the only power that these opinions have is the power to influence.

You have yet to prove that opinions rule Americans, in fact you have shown evidence otherwise. Your argument with the christian girl shows that you were not swayed by her christian views, nor her by your views. If popular opinion were truly ruling we would all be exactly the same, or as close as possible.

First, I love the dictionary. Yet if a word always meant its definition, poetry would not exist, and apparent literary paradoxes would be just that, a paradox with no deeper meaning. Nevertheless, you neglected define opinion, which is the central theme of this debate.

Opinion: belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge b: a generally held view

You state that everyone would be the same, or very close to the same, on the contrary, opinions build on one another. It is from the base opinions held by Americans that the others stem. Opinions on money, God, life, America itself, love, lust, etc.

Let's also remember the hectic pace of the American lifestyle, how many of us truly sit down and contemplate deeply the nature of the world we live in? I would say there are a good amount of us who do. But how many of us contemplate it without adding our experiences or emotions into our thoughts? How many of us contemplate the world off of rote observation and deduction?

Due to the hectic pace of the American life, we are forced to make superficial inference based on what pleases us, and what doesn't please us and leave it at that. We have to make money, we want to be liked, and deep in the soul of every person there is a desire to understand. We base our understanding on experience and how those experiences make us feel. Oil conglomerates are rich, and I want to be rich so they are bad. That would be an opinion. Sublime sucks because all of their fans smoke weed. Christians are good people. Muslims are bad people. Black are criminals. These are all opinions. We all hold many, and the further we delve into them and take them as truths, the further we are enchained by them. It becomes a tyranny, and it starts to rule us. This is the land of the free, yet only so few of us will know what it is to be free.

A girl cries because some random person called her ugly. She is a slave to that person's will, that person's opinion. Is she ugly? Maybe she's hot? That's an opinion. She is greatly affected by it. All of us, to a degree, are affected by other's opinion of us. This is another way it rules America.

American's have no doctrine. So few of us even know our constitution. So few of us follow the teachings of the bible when it doesn't suit us. There is nothing firm or lasting that we can judge ourselves by, other than public opinion.

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts" - Donald Patrick Moynihan

What are facts? They are truths. A truth nulls any opinion. And anytime you prove someone's opinion to be wrong, they will fret for awhile, and eventually concede to it. Anyone can learn the truth, it takes time. Yet we have come to not only live by our opinions, but love them. We fear the truth. We dedicate our lives to uncertainties. Honestly, think for a minute, how can there be so many different Gods? Though I know what I am about to say will seem arrogant as hell, it will spur curiosity in at least a couple of people so it will be worth it. I know for a fact there is a God, though I can't know his extent. If I go any further it would be dangerous, because even what I said just there is open to interpretation.

Once again this is not solely an American epidemic, we have just taken it to hysterical new heights. We have scientology; some of us even dedicate our lives to celebrities. We emulate Paris Hilton and dream ridiculous amounts, without ever willing those dreams true. Is it ironic that the American dream rarely becomes a reality? Yet I am discoursing from my purpose.

The reason it is so bad is because liberals love being liberals and conservatives love being conservatives. When you love your image, you can't truly love your country, which is why these parties came to be in the first place. We are eating the country to death from the inside out. This is why opinion is worse in America than anywhere else, because here it not only rules our people, it rules our country. That is the only flaw of Democracy.

Feel free to argue with me about small details, that is of course, the state of America. I urge you to argue the big picture. Not the definitions, but what they represent. For I am sure when Robert Frost wrote "The Road Not Taken", he was not talking solely about two roads diverged in a yellow wood.

That's too bad. I was looking forward to repete's rebutal. hopefully he will show up for the next round to continue the debate.