Our very conception of participation in the public discourse is predicated upon a gross distortion of the proper relationship between truth and opinion. We abhor silence, as if having nothing to say is somehow worse than saying much without substance. It is not shameful to recognize one’s own incompetence for judgment, if judgment requires knowledge that one does not possess. Regarding subjects which we cannot adequately know, especially those which concern the private lives of other people, it is honorable not to have an opinion.
Celeste Marcus, “Priorism, or the Joshua Katz Affair,” Liberties 3 (Winter 2023), 290.