Summary: IMHO: In my humble opinion--what's the deal with that? What do we ever say that isn't our humble opinion? And yet when we declare "It's raining" do we really mean "I think it's raining" or is raining a fact, and therefore not a matter of humble opinion? In the acronym IMHO, the H is redundant. IMO is already humbled, revealing awareness of one's role as an interpreter of evidence, as if to say, "The opinions expressed here are those of the expressor and may not be those of reality itself, the expressor's ultimate employer. And even "In my opinion" is redundant since the evidence that a statement is your opinion is implied by the way it emanates from your pie hole. You've probably been in one of these exchanges before. A: It’s not a good idea. B: Well, that’s your opinion. A: Of course, it’s my opinion! I’m saying that in my opinion it’s not a good idea! If “in my opinion” is implicit, why would we ever make it explicit? One reason would be signal receptivity to alternative perspectives. It can signal that, “this is a conversation, not an argument or a fight.” A: What did you think of the movie last night? B: In my opinion it wasn’t very good. A: Ah, well in my opinion it wasn’t bad. I have yet to meet a signal that couldn’t, in some contexts mean the opposite of its literal meaning. A showy signal of accommodation and receptivity can be a way of saying “you’re so aggressive I have to walk on eggshells not to upset you.” IMHO can signal “I’m the humble one here; you’re the arrogant one.” I sometimes use IMAO (In my arrogant opinion) to confuse this effect. And notice also that declaring oneself humble is a fairly arrogant act. In Numbers, one of the five books of Moses (supposedly written by Moses), verse 12:3 reads, “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” Not arrogant, perhaps if it was dictated to Moses by God, or at least no more arrogant than saying “People say I’m really humble.” Many common phrases have a suspiciously arrogant-sounding self-reported humility. “Excuse me” is a command. “With all due respect,” implies a claim that amounts to “I’m an authority on how much respect is due to you, and trust me, I know I’m showing you your full due.” Perhaps more accurately we should say “With all due respect, I’ll leave it to you to decide whether I’m showing you due respect when I say…”. One of the cockiest conversationalists I’ve ever met, would pepper her unsolicited advising and pontificating with the caveat, “I reserve the right to be wrong,” as though everything she said would be so compelling we might forget her potential fallibility. Any time we graciously remind and assure people that they are entitled to an alternative perspective, we run the risk of sounding like they don’t. A: Feel free to disagree with me. B: (Sarcastically) Why thank you, that is so kind! I was waiting for your permission. When we preface something with IMHO does that mean everything said before it was not IMHO? When we say, “Well, frankly speaking” does that mean everything before it wasn’t frank? When we say, “You look great!” does that mean that you didn’t before? In sum, when is a signal a reminder of an ongoing state and when is it the announcement of the start of a new state. Another possible use of IMHO is to distinguish opinion from fact. When I say, “It’s raining,” I’m stating a fact. When I say, “It looks dreary outside,” that’s an opinion. But if it were as straightforward as that, we wouldn’t need to distinguish explicitly. We would all know the difference between fact and opinion. Epistemologists--those who study the difference between fact and opinion have not come to agreement on the diffe
