De gustibus non est disputandum

Those Greeks and Romans. It is scary how many of our current issues they addressed first.

De gustibus non est disputandum - In matters of taste, there can be no disputes.

This ties to the famous quote attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan's

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.

Both statements true but both beg the question, where do opinions leave off and facts take up?

There are readily available means of making that distinction but they are unpopular. People do not wish to hear that their closely held belief is a matter of faith rather than of fact.

Emotion and anecdote are preferred by many over empiricism, objectivity and logic. There is room for both in a full life but they serve different purposes and trouble arises when we confuse opinion for fact.