I’ve probably posted too often here about people invoking their First Amendment rights in situations that make no sense. The newspaper doesn’t run their crazy letter to the editor, or a private website takes down their threats to kill the President (!!!) and it’s “violating their First Amendment rights.” It drives me out of my mind that these people have clearly never actually taken the time to read the First Amendment, which pretty obviously does not pertain to newspapers exercising editorial standards or websites not wanting to be seen as promoting domestic terrorism. (And, actually, its restriction on the abridging of free speech doesn’t apply to newspapers or websites at all, unless they’re government-run.)

But I’ve found another pet peeve. Someone starts a post on a site somewhere expressing a controversial opinion or complaining about something. Others chime in and disagree with them. And suddenly, the original poster gets all flustered. They were expressing their opinion, and think it’s really out of line for people to disagree with them.

I never understood their reasoning, though. Aren’t the people replying to your opinion also expressing their opinion? Why is yours okay and theirs is out of line?

I hope you agree with me about this. If you don’t, I don’t want to hear it, because I’m expressing my opinion.