Schrodinger's Hand

When you talk to someone about something important or heated, the main point is to tell them your opinion and to hear theirs. In the case of politics, abortion, or other controversial topics, many people forget the second half. They care so much about their opinion and would never think of changing it, so why should they hear what anyone else has to say?

Changing your opinion publicly is so much more difficult than changing it privately. You can think what you want and change intermittently based on any new information you gain. Once you make your opinion public, however, changing it publicly makes you seem like you don't know what you want or, even worse, what you are talking about in the first place.

Besides that, you want to be a consistent person. You want to know who you are and what you like and you probably don't like change. When you commit to something, you commit to it fully. Once it is out in the open, you truly believe it, whether or not you would have changed your mind about it given new information later. You are set in your ways unintentionally by making your opinion known.

This being the case, I can't help but be reminded of Schrodinger's Cat. You don't know whether it is alive or dead until you look at it. Similarly, you don't know someone's opinion of something until they state it. It could be anything, but once they tell you, that's it. That's their opinion. Period. Some people don't like that your cat is still alive and so they will try their hardest to kill it, but it doesn't change the fact that it was alive. It was your opinion on the subject.

Before you talk to someone, you can have all the opinions you want, you can arrange your hand of cards in any way you wish. However, once you put your cards on the table, you can't change them again, that's cheating, right? Once you voice your opinion you can't easily change it again. You're stuck.

Why would you intentionally show your cards to someone and lock yourself into a certain way of being without provocation? Don't go around boasting about the opinions you hold without getting all the facts first. You can keep the cards and cat to yourself, but once someone else gets involved, you have to go all in.

Also they might kill your cat. There's some incentive.