Try defending your favorite opinion without quoting anyone. If you can’t, it might not be yours yet.

Borrowing an argument and holding a view are easy to mix up. If every reason traces back to somebody else’s words, what you have is loyalty to whoever said it, which is not thinking. Being unable to put it in your own sentences is no shame, it only means the work is outstanding. Doing that work is how a position becomes yours.

Take the view you would defend hardest and write the case out in your own words, no names and no quotes. Where you get stuck is the part you have taken on trust. Then read something that disagrees and see whether your sentences hold.