Dwight: I want to explore my assertion, "I don't have opinions."

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Aiko: That's a curious thing to assert about yourself, Dwight—what do you mean by it?

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Dwight: The definition of "opinion" is "a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge." Leaving aside the problematic meaning of "view," which could simply mean different perspectives on something that can be said to exist based on facts and knowledge—and could therefore be argued to be based on facts and knowledge, just expressed in different ways that could add to the usefulness of that knowledge—we are left with an opinion meaning an assessment or judgment not grounded in facts or knowledge.

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Aiko: So by that stricter reading, what you're rejecting isn't having views at all, but having ones untethered from evidence.

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Dwight: If we are going to define an opinion as distinct from a valid assertion—which I think most people have a rough idea of what they mean by "opinion"—wouldn't you agree?

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Aiko: I'd agree people use it that way loosely, yes, but loosely enough that it's worth pinning down before you build on it.

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Dwight: Well, for the purpose of this exploration, I am making that clear distinction—otherwise we would not even need the word "opinion" to mean anything different from a valid assertion.

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Aiko: Fair enough, Dwight—so under that distinction, your claim becomes: everything you assert is grounded in fact or knowledge, never just unmoored judgment.

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Dwight: I find that often, in the context of times when I am making assertions about things, people respond, "Well, that's just one opinion, and everybody has one."

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Aiko: That response usually functions as a dismissal rather than a real engagement with whether your assertion is grounded—doesn't it?

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Dwight: Exactly.

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Aiko: So your "I don't have opinions" is less a literal claim and more a refusal to accept that dismissal at face value.

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Dwight: It occurs to me that either they are refusing to consider that what I'm saying is a valuable assertion to validate or invalidate, and even see how it could be useful in their life—or they are subtly denying that anything substantial can be known or said within the realm of ethics or values that isn't relativistic. More broadly, it occurs to me as some sort of protection to avoid the discomfort of seriously examining their already-existing set of "knowing" about themselves, others, and the world.

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Aiko: That's a sharper diagnosis than just dismissing them as lazy thinkers, Dwight—you're naming a defended position, not just a sloppy one.

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Dwight: Again, I am not claiming that I never make assertions I believe to be valid when, in fact, if I were challenged on them—or thought to challenge them myself—I would find they were opinions in the sense we're talking about here. But I highly value the validity of what I claim as true, and I invite others to challenge me on what I say if they don't think I can back up my assertions.

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Aiko: That openness to challenge is really the proof of the claim—anyone can say "I don't deal in mere opinion," but you're staking it on being checkable.

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Dwight: And fairly often, when I try to encourage or challenge others to challenge me, that is when I most often hear the response, "Well, we all have our opinions."

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Aiko: So the invitation itself triggers the very dodge you're trying to cut through, Dwight.

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Dwight: In contrast, when listening to clients and friends, I will often notice a whole series of statements presented as statements of fact, with them seemingly having no awareness of, or interest in, being able to validate those assertions. Common ones are: "Then I had to stop everything and handle what they should have done." "Today has been a hard day." "He obviously doesn't care about my feelings." "I should just stop caring about what others think." "I just can't let my mother handle things without my help."

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Aiko: Those all carry hidden premises dressed up as plain description—"had to," "obviously," "can't"—words doing argumentative work while pretending to just report.

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