I worked in a gas station for two years but I don’t know how to repair cars.
Opinions please. 
The only comment I have on that is very very few people are in a position to know that they really do understand a particular area. The ultimate internet issue is that every post does not start with “In my experience, which is limited to X, Y, and Z, and in my education, at colleges A and B, this is my current informed opinion…” And that every response doesn’t start with “I hear what you are saying, but this is what I think”.
No one can understand anyone else, ever. No one. We can empathize, and we can offer advice, but we cannot understand. Even two people with stage IV lung cancer cannot understand the other’s journey, or two people who play MLB, or two people who use a wheelchair. Everyone’s journey is different.
oh noooo
I thought that was the whole point of the internet
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Opinionated
Quoted:
"Opinionated
Someone who isn’t afraid to give their personal opinion. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It’s just someone that doesn’t stay quiet, if they don’t agree with something.
The only people who see it as bad and attach stigma (like the other definitions) to it are those that don’t like to hear opinionated people talk.
Yes, you can be opinionated and polite at the same time. Being polite doesn’t mean you have to agree with every objectionable thing that’s said.
Just because I’m opinionated doesn’t mean I’m a b*tch. I just like to share my thoughts. "
I did also and learned my way around an engine and a gas tank. That reminds me I have to check the oil in the cars.
What bothers me are people who don’t take the time to research a topic yet swear by some figures they looked up.
In real life I’d lose all my friends if I made them listen to all my opinions. On the internet, readers can just skip my posts. I still have the pleasure of expressing myself, and I can’t see the reactions. So they don’t bother me much.
also: the opinions here are amazing sometimes. That is both educational and entertaining to me on so many levels.
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I worked in a gas station for two years but I don’t know how to repair cars.
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I’ve worked as a parent for 26 years, but I don’t know how to repair children.
That said, some people are shallow thinkers.
You mean the ones that don’t agree with you.
Some people read an article in the paper about something, so they think they know everything about the subject. Some people just like to talk. Some people like to be looked up to, so they pretend they know things they don’t.
IME, most of these people are men.
Because it makes them feel like they are important. Everyone knows it’s important to have an opinion.
Not on CC!
I have to stand up for my gender. 
Many of the know-it-all types are female. Just read our fashion advice threads.
I can’t comment on this one becaue I don’t understand it.
Because opinions are like (insert anatomy part near the tailbone) – everybody has one!
“Many of the know-it-all types are female. Just read our fashion advice threads.”
Exactly, like folks who never owned an evening dress commenting on what OP should buy to wear to her kid’s wedding
I blame the Dunning-Kruger effect.
But then, even experts are susceptible:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/07/24/2015/do-know-it-alls-really-know-it-all.html
Same Dunning, I think. (But don’t know)
Because ‘these subjects’ are usually important and complicated. “Important” is interesting to people, and “complicated” is the result of being interesting.
Good thread though… Reminds me of an article I read this morning on millennials (my people) and politics. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/07/millennials-economics-voting-clueless-kids-these-days/374427/
@Dave_N, great avatar. Very appropriate for this thread. 
Great link too.
@fractalmstr, great link.
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most of these people are men.
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I think that IRL men have a harder time saying, “I don’t know much about that…” Sometimes I have to ask men, “are you assuming or are you certain about that?” because I don’t want to go with what they’re saying and then find out that they were talking thru their hat.
And sometimes I have to further clarify as to whether their knowledge is recent or is it from 50 years ago. “No, dad, bread is no longer 25 cents a loaf.”
“Why are people so opinionated about subjects they don’t know or understand?”
Too many damn Holiday Expresses!