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Comment by james_marks

9 days ago

Even worse, "I would argue that..."

It's not hypothetical if you are here, in the current tense, arguing that. I've mostly cured myself of the habit, but its tough.

“I would argue that…” is a weaker statement, because it ends with an implied “…but since I don’t care that much, I’m not ‘seriously’ arguing that.” It’s not at all equivalent to the strong statement “I argue that…”, which has no such qualifier.

Why cure yourself of useful conversational nuance?