Things Are Not As Simple as They Seem. So Stay Away from Things

When You Get Right Down to It,
This is Just Somebody's Opinion

Things are usually not as simple as they seem.  This is very inconvenient.  Take other people.  You size someone up - taking careful account of their age, race, sex, socio-economic status, and religion - and then, blammo!  It turns out they're nothing at all like you expected.  This completely wastes all the effort you put into judging them beforehand, which is why I recommend avoiding other people altogether, at least people who are not already exactly like you and don't share your tastes and opinions.  Certainly, it is appropriate to observe them from a distance - this is what they're there for - but on no account interact with them.

Facts are another thing.  You have opinions, and they are strongly held.  Good for you.  Opinions are the peanut butter of the soul; they hold together the two slices of bread that are...  Okay, I lost control of the metaphor, but nevertheless, opinions are essential to your sense of well-being and hence to your ability to operate in the world.  Unfortunately, every so often you come up against a fact, and what an awful lot of facts there are!  Many of these facts completely contradict things you believe.

Now what?

Not to worry; fortunately, facts are even easier to do without than people.  When you get right down to it, what is a "fact" anyway, but a kind of opinion?  Like algebra, that's just someone else's opinion!  I'll emphasize that phrase again: someone else, someone who is different than you.  Starting to get the picture?  We're talking about the sort of people you're better off avoiding in the first place.  And if they come back at you with - but remember, don't engage with them - a bunch of palaver about "scientific method" or "proof" or whatever, that's just another opinion.  And unless it agrees with you, a wrong opinion.

But what do you expect of people like that?