&gt; <i>I&#x27;ve pretty firmly condemned lack of intellectual rigor for a long time, and by far the most common response I&#x27;ve gotten is &quot;not everyone has the time or will to try to become informed on every issue&quot;.</i><p>Yeah. A lot of people don&#x27;t seem to realize that <i>not having an opinion</i> is also a viable, and in those cases the right, option. But it ties to:<p>&gt; <i>The only reason I can imagine is wanting to feel and seem informed without putting in any of the time to become so.</i><p>I&#x27;ll give you another one - signaling. Especially in debates that have some audience, it&#x27;s a way for people to show their allegiance. The argument doesn&#x27;t even have to convince anyone. It seems that most arguments on social media go like this.