Respectfully, "I firmly believe" followed by an assertion from a non expert passing as "facts" is a pox on our modern society.
Why don't we characterize it as "challenging" them?
What we need to stop doing is making arguments that something being an opinion means it shouldn't be pushed back on.
It's one thing if someone says I like broccoli better than pizza, it's another when someone makes a statement that is not about their own preferences. Many of those opinions are bad and should be challenged.
They didn't push back on the _opinion_, they pushed back on _expressing an opinion_:
¨Respectfully, "I firmly believe" followed by an assertion from a non expert passing as "facts" is a pox on our modern society.¨
Nothing in there is "challenging" the opinion or "pushing back" on the opinion -- it's criticizing _expressing an opinion_.
The poster reacted to an opinion negatively and pointed out that people need to stop that behavior.
Can you imagine if someone said "raping children should be ok" and someone else tried to argue that saying people should stop raping children means they attacked the person and not the opinion?
right, they challenged the opinion, stop with the wordplay.
Consider: “I firmly believe that fire is hot”. Sounds a bit odd, no?