2timothy316 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 16, 2021 3:49 pm
I don't look to win debates.
I think we do.
It's why we are here. We are looking to argue our views and opinions and validate them not only to ourselves but to others. To repeat myself (bad habit of mine and one of my favourites) "I have never accepted 'Not arguing - just telling'. We are here to make our case and (I believe) 'Not here to argue' is said only by those who are afraid to lose a debate.
Now as to 'Your opinion is noted'...it's not in the Theist to English dictionary and phrasebook, but it is in the online interlinear dictionary of Corporate wafflelese. Dlibert noted this by having his 'boss' say (in a conference, 'I value your opinion' which is corporate -speak for 'I am going to do what I like and I only held this meeting so you couldn't claim that you weren't consulted'. And trust me, That was what I saw in my own office. I have a theory....
... that Margaret Thatcher invented that politics and Corporations took it up and the world has never recovered.
Anyhow....'Your opinion is noted' really means whatever the writer means it to mean, but principally, 'I'm not listening'. or 'I don't care what you say', 'We shall have to agree to differ' and other variations on the fingers in the ears which is the final defence of the denialist. Of course we do sometimes have to agree to differ where there are equally valid cases on both sides. For instance, the Historical Jesus. I'm not even sure in my own mind and 'agree to differ' has some merit.
But even there (and haven't I noticed it with my evidentially true 'principle of embarrassment') the makeweight in the argument is dismissed without comment apparently because it isn't what is being 'Generally Said', and that is just what 'your opinion is noted' (read 'I'm not listening') means.