I'm Just Sayin'

You know you have heard that a million times in the past few years.  
I heard it just today and let myself stop and think about how ridiculous that phrase is.  
If I said what I said.. I was saying it.  Do I need a caveat?  Need I explain that I am saying the actual words that I just said?

OK OK!
I use that phrase.  I am a satirical master. But when I do use it what EXACTLY do I mean by it?
"I'm just sayin'"   ...   Is it an easy way out to say something rude or insulting or even debasing and since.. "I'm just sayin'"..does that somehow make it socially acceptable?   Am i trying somehow to soften the blow of a deep and penetrating truth?   Do I find the need to hide behind these words so that I do not have to own up to what is following/preceding them?   Perhaps if "I'm just sayin' "   I may not need to be sayin' at all?

Now, most of the time this phrase is used in fun and jest.  I love to joke and am probably one of the more sharp tongued of my friends.  I use too harsh a word from time to time and have to pay my penance of apologies.  BUT.. If ,  I'm just saying.. you look like you slept in those clothes... is it somehow softer than, What? you sleep in those?  I may have to make this a preface to each phrase I speak.   Even if I do find it a bit redundant.  I am saying what I am saying, or I wouldn't be saying it after all.

It has almost become the new "like"...   Listening to my  teens talk, is like, almost, like, a western union telegraph., like....
I am going to the mall (stop), like, so I can, (stop) like, get new shoes, (stop) like, and wear them (stop) like, to the after party.

This epidemic has spread to the adult world as well.   At  a recent business meeting one of the presenters was riddled with the "Like" button.  She said "Like", like 40 times in a single paragraph... I couldn't concentrate at all on what was being said.   Her point was valid, her argument to advancement in the community was endearing, but, like, all the while, I like, was hash marking, every, like that, she, like was saying.  I lost her point completely.  It was, like.. so annoying. Someone should talk to her, not ME!
... I'm just sayin'.