Even if it were true (but it's not)

On a recent episode of the Infinite Monkey Cage, they were talking about numbers. One of them stated something or other, I forget what - I think it was about babies being aware of different numbers - and another responded by saying

...that's controversial. And even if it were true...

Language pedants get a lot of mileage out of bemoaning the loss of the subjunctive. The subjunctive is not really much of a thing in English, but we see remnants of it in set phrases like Long live the king, where the meaning expresses a hope or a wish. It's just the bare form of the verb, and it's used in hypothetical situations. We often don't use it nowadays, apart from in quite formal registers. It's not that important because we have other ways of signalling the same thing.

But this is precisely where it is useful if you want to give a sick burn in the most understated way imaginable. You see, your subjunctive is used for counterfactuals: situations that are not currently true. So by using it you get to say 'I do not believe that this is true', at precisely the same time as you are saying with your actual words 'This might be true' (=if this is true). oof.