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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5078836" data-attributes="member: 59082">Uh, I'm pretty sure that diaglo was being facetious. Yes, exactly. I don't see a problem with saying "I don't like X-edition" or even "X-edition sucks" because it isn't directed at any person (although you could argue that it could be used passive aggressively). Saying "advocate of X-edition sucks" is where it goes too far and is inappropriate. But I find it equally irking that, in many peoples' minds, statement A is bad but statement B is OK:A: X-edition sucks.B: X-edition sucks, IMHO.This is irking because people who say B is ok but A is not often seem to assume that this itself is a objective fact, that not using "IMHO" is inherently bad communication and the person must be falling into One True Wayism. There is a subtle irony here, mainly because in one way or another, we are all prone to One True Wayism, but instead we play a semantic blame game. Not to mention that jumping too quickly to an accusation of One True Wayism is just sloppy thinking. It is not unlike assuming someone is sexist because they say "Mankind" instead of Humanity." We need to look more to the essence, I think. I would further add that an accusation of One True Wayism is itself a kind of ad hominem and a conversation ender, not unlike Godwin's Law.The only time I use "IMHO" or "as I see it" etc, is when I feel the need to be (perhaps overly) explicit, to emphasize my own subjectivity; this often occurs as a tactic of diplomacy when I'm expressing my opinion about someone else (e.g. "IMHO, you aren't seeing the full picture"). But I don't think it is necessary to do so when expressing my opinion about a thing or concept, and certainly not a game. I think there is a problem when our interpersonal context requires us to do so all of the time. It dilutes communication, obfuscating it in a kind of politically correct jargon.</blockquote>

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