“In my humble opinion” is one of the most
passive-aggressive things anyone can say. There’s this old saying that if one
says one has humility, immediately one doesn’t. Obviously, one can simply write
“in my opinion.” By injecting the word “humble” into it, one is basically
saying, “See, my opinion is humble,
so obviously yours isn’t. Also by claiming my opinion is humble, I’ve just
hijacked the moral ground from you, so you’re stranded. If you attack my
opinion, you’re attacking someone who’s self-consciously humble, beneath your
exalted self. If you don’t contradict me, you let my contentions gain
legitimacy by default.”
As for me, my opinion is my opinion. There’s nothing humble about it, and I don’t see any reason why there
should be.
It always struck me as sort of a snarky thing to say.
ReplyDeleteIt is an empty phrase of the English language I learned when I communicated with English native speakers. I thought it is a phrase of polite humility and picked it up to use it myself, as well. We don't have such a phrase in German, we say 'meine Meinung', my opinion. Of course you are right Bill, about the passive-aggressive content. I won't use it again.
ReplyDeleteBill,
ReplyDeleteExcellent, and yes, I agree with you on this.
As for myself, I at times use the following, just to BE snarky. I use; "in my (not so very) humble opinion", but only very selectively and not very often. Again, I use to BE snark and nothing else. Yeah, I AM that sort of nasty at times. Hey, what do you expect? I was a US Marine and am a veteran of the imperial war in Vietnam after all. Yes, that last was a bit of snark also, but mostly sarcasm, or an attempt at it.
Excellent, Bill! Your explanation is very correct. Perhaps many people use 'in my humble opinion' as a courtesy, but as you clearly wrote, the 'humble' turns out 'arrogant'.
ReplyDeleteperfect an opinion is an opinion
ReplyDeleteIn my humble opinion, U have nailed it ;)
ReplyDelete