Saying "In my opinion" is now like saying "That's how it is!"
It used to be that adding "In my opinion" to an expressed view meant you were open to argument or new information about whatever you'd said. "In my opinion" was a hedge, like saying "I'm not sure" or "It seems to me."
That's all changed dramatically over the last couple of decades. Adding "In my opinion" to expression of something now is to make it sacrosanct, to put it beyond argument and perhaps even beyond new information. What's changed is that as I've argued elsewhere, many now think that respect for persons means that in respecting others we must accept their opinions as "true for them." Many now think we're morally bound to accept others' opinions as part of who they are, rather than as views or ideas they have that might need correction or expansion. So saying "In my opinion" has come to really mean something like "This is what I think and what I stand by."
All of this relates closely to our new obsession with respect for individuals' cultural values and practices. Where once expressions of opinion were more often than not invitations or at least opportunities for debate and discussion, expressions of opinion now are final and apparently irrevocable declarations or manifestos of how things are for someone. So rather than being tentative, opinions are now not open to debate.
I've heard people arguing about everything from events in the Middle East to whether one wine is preferable to another and heard them put an end to the discussion by saying "Well, that's my opinion." This is now a conversation stopper; it's an end to discussion. Where once it was a qualification of a view, it is now final assertion of a position.
I find this development frustrating and sad. It's frustrating because it's an end to genuine conversation, and it's sad because it manifests a depressing unwillingness to reassess and reevaluate what one thinks. It's like the old joke: "I've made up my mind; don't confuse me with the facts."
The irony is that much of the point of demanding that opinions be respected as part of respecting persons was to protect the views of minorities and those without power. But what has actually happened is that we've validated a lot of people going around with distorted or plain wrong ideas, and made it politically incorrect to criticize them. But then, that's just my opinion.
