How much does experience matter in giving your opinion?

It really depends on the subject.

I’m not a political analyst or politician, but judging from the research I’ve done, I believe that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign was the worst managed campaign by a democrat in a very long time. I think my opinion is perfectly valid because I’ve looked at numerous scientific data, polls, and political strategy. An experienced establishment politician, who lives in their own bubble, might not be able to see things clearly.

But with a subject like race and gender identity, I think is completely different.

It depends.

Parenting is a tough one, because without fail whatever you think parenting is goes out the window once you are one. And while I think I can imagine what it would be like to be missing a limb or be without vision or hearing, I suspect my ideas about such things would not map to reality if they actually happened to me.

This isn’t to say that people who have not had the experience shouldn’t share the opinion. We all do. It’s just that I understand that there is a huge difference between imagining what something is like and actually experiencing it.

Also, re: mental illness – so many people think they understand what depression is because they have felt periods of intense sadness. That is not depression, and many people don’t understand the difference until they actually experience depression.

Yes, I agree. As someone who has been diagnosed with OCD, I’m not a fan of people who casually throw around the phrase to describe “quirks”. It’s far from that.

You don’t have to be a homosexual to take a moral stance on homosexuality, but if you’re going to tell me that my homosexual desires are only lust, that homosexuals can’t actually love someone of the same gender, then I’m going to tell you that your opinion is worthless.

Some statements require experience to have validity, some don’t.

It does depend as stated above. Before I had a hysterectomy, I asked people who had actually had one what their experiences with it were. I certainly didn’t want to hear that someone’s grandmother had one 40 years ago and bled to death. I also trusted what my doctor said would happen.
Parenting is something I know nothing about and never weigh in on the subject. I have nephews And nieces, and friends with kids, but it doesn’t make me an expert or even knowledgeable on the subject.
I’ve had dogs all my life, but never more than one at a time. If the question is about owning several dogs, I wouldn’t answer it. I think that we are such a small group here that we pretty much know who is married, who has kids, etc, so we know what answers to take with a grain of salt.

I agree that it depends on the situation. I do not know what it’s like to suffer from depression that is profound it takes over one’s life, so I can’t begin to discuss how it feels. But I CAN discuss what it’s like living with people who suffer from depression.

Before we had kids my girlfriend and I were discussing parenting philosophies. She said she would never, ever spank her children. I said I figured I’d spank mine if it was called for.

Fast forward 8 years. We have kids the same age. Yes, I spank mine once in huge blue moon. She does not spank them. I’ve seen her slap the living shit out of her 5 year old for asking her something while she was doing my hair, but she can take pride in the fact that she’s never spanked him.
I think my expectations were realistic and I’ve raised my kids pretty much the way I figured I would before I had them. She didn’t. She let too many little things frustrate the crap out of her and she’d react in raging violence.

I think experience always matters; that is, I don’t think the same person X is going to have the same opinion both before and after the experience.

But it can also give people the illusion that they know more than they do about something—like a one-book expert, a one-episode veteran of this or that experience may think they know all about my reaction to the same thing.

I was furious when my husband wrongly anticipated my reaction to a certain diagnosis because of the way his friend reacted to the same thing. My reaction was almost the opposite, but he listened to his friend instead of to me.

This is why I don’t like speculative questions even in the realm of reality (such as “What would you do if you caught someone breaking into your house?”); I don’t really know, and I might not even do the same thing twice—i.e., not after having the experience once.

But I also think you can give an opinion, a valid and helpful opinion, without having been there yourself. Otherwise doctors would have to have every disease, condition, and treatment, and they’d be a mess. A female therapist couldn’t help much with men’s issues. A celibate priest couldn’t advise on marital stress. And so forth.

And there’d be no such thing as imaginative fiction.

Experience affords a definite advantage in empathy, but it may also limit your view (“Here’s what worked for me, so you should try it”) or even make you deaf to differences. Training should offer wider options. Second-hand experience gives perspective; if you know six people who’ve dealt with, say, a kid’s punitive teacher, you might have better ideas than if you just went with your parental protective instinct.

Permanent conditions can sometimes be experienced vicariously, but probably not without genuine effort. I don’t expect the sort of person who loves to organize potlucks ever to understand the stress I feel when I’m asked to participate in one.

I think we all learn through our lives, relationships and experiences about a large variety of issues. Experience does count for something, but no one group holds ultimate authority over an entire subject.

Just recently, there were posts directed at JUST Trump supporters, and we’ve learned that many here do not understand that pov at all, but they still comment. Usually stinking up the whole question with “Trumps an orange a$$hat” comments that don’t need to be said for the millionth time.

Maybe the rules should change, if the OP specifically asks for ONLY certain people to respond, we can respect that. Otherwise it’s open for all.

Giving an opinion on any given subject with which you have no experience at all is just theory, that might be well educated theory, but is a poor substitute for hands on, in your face practice.
Parenting being a particular example of the nuanced, highly emotional & individual nature that only those who have children could be relied upon to state actual real life experiences.

Cue Randy: “I want only the nice people to respond.”

^^^ LOLLL!!

If a person is raised in privilege and wealth, does their opinion on poverty mean very much?

Ernest Hemingway attempted to hunt U-boats with his fishing boat.
He intended to throw hand grenades at the submarines if he found them.

Sorry, I got that quote wrong. It should have said: “I want only the nice people to answer.” Nuts, spoiled my own punch line.

Pretty much what @rockfan and @notnotnotnot said. Parenting, race, mental illness, gender identity, always privileged versus life in poverty, yes, experience matters. Everybody has an opinion, but trying to insert logic and reason into highly emotional and volatile topics (as mentioned) just seems asinine to me, no matter how well meant.

I imagine we’ve all had situations that are important and personal to us where someone we know gets upset because we don’t take advice that has no bearing on the issue, but sounds like it might.

If someone is specifically trained to deal with some of these things, fine, but the general population offering up their University of Facebook, or Google U degree as absolute, then no.

I mean, this is the root of what people call “identity politics,” isn’t it? Who you are in some way shapes what you experience, and what you experience shapes just about everything in your life. Your values, what’s important to you, your fears – all shaped by your past experiences.

I value experience immensely. So much of what I’ve experienced in life, I wouldn’t have been able to guess at what it would really be like from the outside. So I try to assume I know nothing of the things I don’t have first-hand experience in, and listen to those who do.

To me, it’s like asking whether the opinion of an expert in something is more valuable than the opinion of a random person. Of course it is.

You could argue that experience also creates bias, which is also true.

Experience has taught me to keep many, if not most, of my opinions to myself.

When my son came out as transgender I valued the opinion of parents and medical professionals who had experience in dealing with other transgender children.

I didn’t value the opinion of those who relied on irrational fears rooted in religious beliefs or lack of education.