Perspectives feel real
A kid says a cat is a pet. A mouse says a cat is a threat. They can’t see it any other way. Their friends agree, which solidifies their view, making it feel totally true.
“This house is overpriced.”
“Nothing matters more than family.”
“You’re talking too much.”
To the person speaking, these feel like facts, not opinions. They really think that house is overpriced, and you’re talking too much. But someone is happy to buy that house at that price, and someone wants you to talk more, so their statements are not necessarily true.
Someone says, “That behavior is immoral and wrong.” But from another perspective, that behavior is moral and right. So, essentially, the person is just saying, “I don’t like it.”
Every statement everyone says could be prefaced with a disclaimer: “From my limited point of view, based only on what I’ve experienced…”
But they don’t need to say that. Instead, we need to know that, and hear it that way. No matter how much authority or conviction they have, no matter how respected or famous they are, their statements are just one biased point of view.
> Someone says, “That behavior is immoral and wrong.” But from another perspective, that behavior is moral and right. So, essentially, the person is just saying, “I don’t like it.”
Many (most?) people have a system of morality that extends beyond "I don't like it". It might be "don't do things that hurt other people" or "elevate more than just yourself" or "follow the rules in this holy book".
These systems of morality can be reduced to opinions, but individual moral judgments have implied secondary opinions that carry much greater weight. For example, if I say that it's immoral and wrong to walk into your house and take something of yours for my own, I'm not just saying "I don't like it", I'm expressing an idea. Maybe the idea of not harming others solely for your own gain, the idea of the Kantean categorical imperative, the idea of the Biblical golden rule, and / or the idea that owning property is a fundamental human right that can't be taken away by someone else deciding they want a thing more.
I don't think dismissing moral arguments as individual opinions is a fair take, because moral arguments usually imply moral frameworks which are at least networks of opinions which provide a foundation for specific judgments.