Talkers, talking and poorly disguised opinions

So I just got out of my history class on Intentional Communities. Great class, absolutely loved it. I sat for almost three straight hours completely enraptured by the discussion and could have gone even longer. While I was there I had an idea final coalesce in my brain. Something was bothering me about the way some people were talking, even though what they said was in no way offensive in content. What I realized was that it wasn't what they said but the way they said it in. Anyone who has ever talked to a first year university student is going to understand what I'm talking about. It's those people who say "in MY opinion" or "I think" but really mean "This is the truth and if you don't agree with ME your a moron." Though I have found this primarily in first year university students I most definitely haven't found it there exclusively. Oh don't worry I remember being one of those people and it's kind of amusing to look back and see just how ignorant you really were. Which actually brings me around to my next point, a comment someone made to me after the class. That comment was that first years talk the most. Now while not university true they do talk a lot and far more passionately. They have the trait of often being unreasonably aggressive or defensive with their beliefs. My personal journey from that point to the point where I can now argue both sides simply to learn more, has been a rough one. I may be wrong but I really don't think there is a painless way to achieve that way of thinking. It seems to me that it almost always requires being displayed as 1) lacking in knowledge 2)being close minded 3)at least once being proven to be absolutely, irrevocably wrong. It's not that such people are with out knowledge it's just that they have yet to come to the realization that they don't have to be right and that they will never know all there is to know on a given subject which makes it very hard to discuss and debate something with them. Mind you just last night I spent four or five hours discussing and debating several topics. It was a most excellent conversation and one that didn't end with one of us convincing the other of his way of thinking but rather of each of us refining are beliefs due to the knowledge of the other.