On “flip-flopping” vs Changing One’s Mind

Look. If you think someone changing their mind, or “evolving” (which is a stupid word to use for this, but whatever) their opinions, is a bad thing, then frankly, you’re wrong.

Evolution of thought is one of the things that make us human. Being able to grow and change even your deeply-held beliefs when the evidence piles up is the mark of a true intellect.
Very, very few people get anything right from the get-go. We learn, we observe the world, and we change our minds based on what we’ve seen and how we’ve changed. If you call that “flip-flopping,” then you’re not even using the term properly.

“Flip-flopping” is when one changes one’s stated opinion to please one’s audience at that moment. So when Politicans tell the NRA one thing, then go to the League of Women Voters and say the opposite thing? That’s flip-flopping.

But when a person thinks A, and then ten, fifteen, even thirty years later, thinks B? That’s not flip-flopping. That’s THINKING. That’s MATURING. That’s GOOD.

Published by Michael R. Johnston

Father of an eighth grader, high school English teacher, writer. Fifty years old and feeling almost every bit of it on some days, and not a bit of it on others. Based in Sacramento, California, USA

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