Some people seem to have no problem expressing opinions in public. Threads on Facebook news posts show thousands of people each time willing to publish a comment that is ill-informed, misspelt, or unrelated to the story at hand.
Whenever I feel the desire to comment on an issue though my first instinct is to do some more thinking on the topic and look things up. The more I learn, the more I realise I don’t know – things usually become more complicated, less certain. The desire to offer an opinion wanes with my confidence until I come to accept again the most profound piece of internet wisdom: never post.
But the more people think like that, the more public space is given over to those acting in bad faith, those commenting from arrogant ignorance, those commenting to sell fear and hate.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
–as Keats wrote in 1920.
If we would claim to do better we must not abdicate responsibility. We must be prepared to act on our best knowledge, to our best ability, accepting the possibility that we might be wrong.