What is Neutrally Opinionated?

Those words were actually used by my best friend to describe me when we were having a conversation about music.  Jaime is always sending me links to old music that I’ve never heard before.  Now, I’m not talking old as in “golden oldies” just stuff that isn’t from the past five or ten years.  Well, he sends me links to those as well, but regardless.  We were having a conversation about the way the quality of music has declined over the years.  I had said:

Yeah, they do. Says a lot for the standards of our listeners. Granted, considering that I do like a good bit of the pop garbage that comes out these days, I really shouldn’t be talking, but at least I’m willing to say that it’s crap unlike a lot of fans!

He responded by telling me that I was “a hypocrite and neutrally opinionated.”  Naturally, my next question was to ask what “neutrally opinionated” meant.

if you don’t totally agree with something, you’re usually too nice to argue about it so you give a negative comment, followed up by a positive one on the same subject, or vice versa, thus…cancelling out the entire opinion, leaving me wondering what your stand is and keeping you out of any conflict because you left the other party in the smoke.

After I mentioned to Jaime that I loved the phrase so much that I was going to put it on a shirt, the phrase officially evolved into “Neutrally Opinionated (Indifference Innovated).”  So, for anyone still a bit confused, I’m going to break it all down word-by-word.  The first two words describe the person, the second to words describe the first two words.  (Confused yet?)  So here goes, first some definitions:

Neutrally: not aligned with or supporting any side or position in a controversy

Opinionated: obstinate or conceited with regard to the merit of one’s own opinions

Indifference: lack of interest or concern

Innovated: make changes in anything established

Okay, the first part basically translates into me being stubborn enough to have an opinion about both sides of a topic without really declaring my support for one side or another.  The second part implies that being neutrally opinionated is a new way to be indifferent.  Cool, right?  :-D  My bestest friend ever is a genius and I loves him!

Now, in my defense, I still claim that my being neutrally opinionated is just a side effect of my unique ability to truly be able to see both sides of most situations.  It gets me into trouble sometimes because I’ll end up saying something that sounds like I’m defending the person who did wrong when I’m really not.  For example, the typical spoiled child.  People tend to be split pretty evenly between blaming the child or blaming the parent for the child’s bad behavior.  On the one hand, the child is responsible for his own actions and should suffer the consequences for his misbehavior.  On the other hand, he was never taught to behave properly and that fault lies with the parents.  People on both sides will look at me as if I’m placing the blame on the wrong person.  To be clear, though, I place blame on both parties.  Once a child reaches a certain mental level, he’s perfectly capable of seeing that he’s been misbehaving for however long and should correct his own behavior without outside help.  However, provided that the parents do their job in the first place and teach the child manners and self-discipline, the child would never have been such a monster in the first place! Yeah, I know, lame example, but it’s the best I have right now.