The Perpetual Adolescents

I received a note from a friend with the following statement:

"Face it, much of the world is being run by the Perpetual Adolescents. They live in a complex psychological state that can be summed up this way: 'Whatever I want to believe, that is reality. Anything else is a lie, even if FACTS prove otherwise.

Facts are what I say they are and nothing else matters but ME! Get it? YOU are an inhuman beast unworthy of respect, a voice, and maybe life for even suggesting otherwise. I'm Plugging my ears - LaLaLaLa!  I can't hear you LaLaLaLa!' "

That made me think of the many comments I have read on Gather that simply ignore the facts in the original post and respond with an opinion that the commenter believes to be true. For example, a post says, "The spending in the Stimulus bill will not revive the economy based on the experience of the U.S. during the Great Depression."

A commenter disagrees and says, "President Obama says that the spending in the Stimulus bill is absolutely necessary to revive our economy according to economic experts."

Where are the facts? What is there to discuss when we are presented with two opposing opinions with no basis in fact. It gets worse when the commenter adds an insult or two because the poster even had the audacity to state his/her opinion.

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) once said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."

So, as I'm reading these comments I'm asking myself,

• Are opinions all that matter, or should they be supported by facts?
• Is it fair to call another's opinion wrong unless facts are presented to refute it?
• Does anyone have a right to insult someone for posting their opinion?
• It it true that "nothing else matters but ME!"?

I'll be interested in your opinions.