@BENBRU:
All opinions are NOT valid, and we should not honor them. Your "opinion" that I may not be entitled to life or property is invalid; if you attempt to act on your opinion, I'll defend myself with deadly force.
In other situations, the stakes can be just as high, but the response is different. If a man steals a quarter from your pocket, you might not even chase after him. Once he starts taking 30% of what you make, however, and that 30% would pay for most private colleges in the US your kids could have gone to, you really have to step up and act to get your property back.
Stalin had the opinion that central planning could drive the economic activity of hundreds of millions of diverse, differing peoples. Millions starved to death.
When your "opinion" infringes on my right to life or property, your "opinion" is nothing more than violent speech against me, and I will defend myself by attacking your position, attacking your field of study, attacking your employer, attacking your funding, and attacking every bit of violence you have spewed until no one within shouting distance believes a word you say now or ever again.
And yeah, sociology is the rationalization of statism, which I'll let you reason the legitimacy of from what I said above.