The Rise Of The Opinion.

Why is it, that now-a-days, whenever anyone says something, especially during a discussion, it always ends up with 'Well, that is my opinion.' as if that is some kind of defining end-all point.

When did opinions come to mean that you could not argue a point? People try to say that opinions are legitimate under any circumstance, cannot be proved wrong, and do not have to be backed up by fact.

People use 'well, that is my opinion, and you have yours' as some kind of show-stopper, as if that ends a discussion, and both sides are valid.

This is, of course, rubbish.

Opinions can be wrong. If you can not back your opinion up with fact, then that means your opinion has been pulled out of the air, and is completely invalid.

The other thing I hate even more is the de-facto 'neutral' that people use opinions for. 'In my opinion' X is Y due to Z, where Z is a reason that has been taken from having absolutely no experience of X. People feel the need to comment on things, despite having no knowledge of the subject at hand, and then, when someone does know, they fall back to 'that is my opinion', and apparently that allows them to remain ignorant with everyone's blessing.

I know where this comes from. A few years of GCSEs (especially the RE course) and writing a few wikipedia articles ('Some say that...') and you end up with a forced 'neutral' tone, which just means that anyone can be right, even if their position is indefensible, because that is politically correct. It sickens me that we are teaching people that opinions are valid no matter what. If two people have opposing opinions, then they cannot both be correct.

John F. Kennedy said "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - apparently, we are encouraging this today, that people are encouraged to take an opinion and then defended for having it, despite having no reason to hold that opinion.