Disclaimers?

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BTW:

Here's an interesting conundrum regarding the "I think" disclaimer. That one can be a double edged sword. What if, in typical aspie fashion, one assumes "I think" is always there?

That would mean everything I read is just someone else's opinion. However, what if what someone posts is viewed by them as a "fact?" (I'm not talking about political or philosophical views and the like ~ I'm talking about stating things that are generally accepted as fact.)

A lot of aspies (myself included), view some "established facts" as mere opinions. If I simply read into them "I think" or, "In my opinion," which I often do, that leads to problems. I, and other aspies as well, sometimes don't realize that what's being said is considered a fact by the writer. That's led to some rather convoluted misunderstandings.

I'm sometimes a sloppy writer on forum posts. That's why I like to sometimes go back and edit my posts - if they're important to me.

I sometimes say "I think" when I should say "I feel" or "I believe." This was sort of trained into me in school, as well as in my work life, where what one thinks seemed to be given more weight than what one feels or believes. I also use it when I'm stating an opinion, or a personal philosophy, or when I want to emphasize that I'm using what I believe to be logical thinking - which is not necessarily all that logical, as I'm not a very logical person.

Also there are times when I know something for a fact, but I can't recall how I know it's a fact, where I read it or why I'm so sure it's absolutely true, so I say "I think" - and if I can come up with the source I may go back and edit out the "I think" and actually cite the source.

So, for me, disclaimers can have a variety of reasons and uses. I don't see any of them as wrong, except perhaps when I use "I think" to replace "I feel" or "I believe."

All in all I think disclaimers help clarify meaning and help me keep my facts straight to some degree. I don't have a problem with them at all.

It bothers me to see someone state something emphatically, as fact, without a disclaimer, when I know it's not a fact but their opinion, or that they have their facts wrong, mainly because I see a lot of erroneous information bandied about on the Internet, and I figure that's where it comes from. Some people take such statements seriously, when they shouldn't.

This is my problem with TV, where so-called news programs are filled with opinions and the pundits state their opinions in such emphatic ways that people take them too seriously. I consider it dangerous and irresponsible. I'm all for freedom of the press, but I think they should be required to verify facts and to indicate clearly when something is an opinion.

I wonder if this is a problem with education? When I was in school (in the US - California - in the 70s) everyone was required to take a journalism class or two, where we learned about propaganda and the difference between straight news and editorial, and about fact checking. It was all basic, introductory stuff, but it helped me a lot in learning to sift through news and restrain myself from forming an opinion too easily. I tend to be a bit gullible, so I consider that to have been invaluable training. Do schools still require that all students take journalism classes?