What do you do with an opinion column?

You’re supposed to read them, although I understand if you’re using this page as an impromptu umbrella or rat cage bedding. Captain Planet would certainly be proud of your adherence to the three R’s.  

Maybe you don’t have the time, or are uninterested in the topic, or think the accompanying picture looks dumb, so you don’t bother reading.

I will accept full responsibility for your lack of interest while privately blaming our editors.

But if you’re going to bother to engage with what I’ve written, online or with friends, please take the time to read the entire column.  

Sometimes reading the first few sentences is not enough. You know where a column is going, but maybe it’s more nuanced that you thought. Maybe it’s not, but you’ll never know until you reach the end.

As you read, remember: This is someone’s opinion.

A common criticism of the opinion section is that it isn’t objective. Readers shake their heads, bemoaning the death of journalism.

If only I could wield such power.

I am not a journalist. The death of journalism is not on me. I am an opinion writer. I am under no obligation to be objective.

You can write about your opinion in a column, a letter to the editor or a comment on idsnews.com, but I don’t have to talk about what you think in my column.

Addressing alternative points of view is probably rhetorically advantageous, but I don’t have to do it.

And if you’re bothering to read my personal thoughts all the way through, please beware a final hurdle: identifying with a specific group or philosophy does not necessitate tacit endorsement of everything other members of that group do or say.

There are pro-choice Republicans, gun-toting Democrats, feminist Muslims and Americans who are less than exceptional. Presuming an argument based on a single identity can leave you responding to claims never made by the writer.

In rebutting a Republican’s pro-life column, citing former Rep. Todd Akin’s, R-Mo., discussion of “legitimate rape” is only relevant if the author alludes to it. Though Akin’s statements, in conjunction with others’, may point to problems with the GOP as a whole, Akin does not represent a universal Republican point of view.  

We assemble ourselves into groups to make the world easier to navigate, but pretending every member of a group agrees perfectly with every other member ignores the variability of humanity, cheapening understanding of individual arguments.

Columnists fall into this trap, too. Reading one stupid quote from one stupid person, we are quick to condemn entire movements, parties and ways of life.  We do this because it is easy.  

It is easy to put down crazy ramblings. It is difficult to confront a well-reasoned argument.

These are just a few recommendations as to what you can do with an opinion column.

If all of this sounds unreasonable, rat cage bedding is still a viable option.

­— casefarr@indiana.edu