It's not normal to wrap all opinions in "I prefer". The average opinion statement looks superficially like a factual statement, without intent to actually claim it's a fact.

> No, they asserted their opinion as a fact.

Interesting idea, let's see if they confirm they were talking facts. I'll be very surprised.

I'm the worst person to take issue with this. This has been my biggest pet peeve for the longest time as well. Right until my frame of mind flipped randomly, and I recognized that by getting upset over blatantly subjective matters being discussed with zero cushioning like this, I'm doing little more than intentionally misreading the other person, and upsetting myself on purpose.

You're reacting to the smoke, not the fire. For example, this may have very well been a perfectly cromulent alternative reply:

> Sounds subjective, and indeed, I disagree. Not a fan of dogma like this anyhow.