Legal Commentary

What Am I Scared of?

By Eugene Volokh

A reader writes, with the subject ?I?m puzzled,?

Not a single word on The Volokh Conspiracy wrt the accusations against the Civil Rights division of the Justice Dept.

What are you guys scared of?

I can?t speak for my colleagues, but here are three things I?m scared of: 

1. Looking like a fool when I opine on a topic about which I don?t know enough, and thus get the facts or the analysis wrong.
2. Getting facts or analysis wrong, even if I don?t look like a fool.
3. Falling yet further behind on my various other responsibilities, as a result of taking the time to learn enough about a complicated, controversial, fact-rich question so that I can opine on it without being wrong.

I think the world would be a better place if people were more scared of things 1 and 2. And, as a reader myself, I tend to prefer it when writers only opine on stuff they actually know about, rather than feeling some obligation to speak up on a complicated subject (such as this particular voting rights enforcement controversy) that they know little about.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on October 01, 2010 (boomark / email).