Excellent points--I discussed some of the predictions made by the New York Times in the course of a century in one of my previous articles. I found that there were so many opinion essays and articles published via Times that are completely wrong now. So, the fact that everyone has got an opinion and that it can be as bad as fake news is a great point you've made. We've to be careful. The prerequisite is that it has to be backed up by research, which is your point no. 1.-- Well-written :)