I was chatting with a friend some time ago about politics and rhetoric, and he said something I've heard many times: the idea that you really can't ever change someone's mind with a persuasive argument, that people see things through their own lens and assimilate all facts in a prejudicial manner that re-enforce their worldview. I am sure this is true of some people.
However, it's patently false overall. I myself have been convinced by arguments and facts to change many of my views. I always "believed" in "freedom" as I understood the notion at the time, but as a boy, I was what one might call a "default liberal." My parents were liberal, almost everyone I knew was a liberal, so I absorbed the liberalism around me.
Also, somewhere in there I became an agnostic/weak atheist.
Today I am a Christian with Universalist leanings and a pretty hardcore libertarian. Those shifts came almost purely from people who proved me wrong, showed me up, and convinced me to change my views.
Some came from just reading, like when Atlas Shrugged punched me in the gut showing me where modern "progressive" thought takes us. Most however, came from simply discussions with intelligent, thoughtful people who felt my brain was worth the time to change -- and then me checking out the facts on my own.
I have seen this happen with many others. I myself have watched people go from liberal or conservative to libertarian through the force of simple persuasion (as well as time and facts of course). I've had a hand in it -- I know for a fact it happens.
History shows this is also the case. As far as I have been able to see in history, MANY folks change through arguments and learning.
Pretty much every Christian I know who came to faith late did so through a process of simple persuasion, and almost every libertarian I know changed from either liberal or conservative in exactly the same manner -- I know of no libertarians who were "born into it."
I'm not going to go into a detailed account of the famous people in history who have changed their opinions and worldview, since I am not actually trying to convince anyone on this point -- I am merely making it to make another psychological point -- but one could simple play with wikipedia biographies and see what I am talking about. The idea that you really can't change someone's mind with a persuasive argument is incorrect.
Now, assuming that it IS incorrect and quite easy to see that it is, why would someone either lie, delude themselves, or simply decide that one can not convince people with the power of argument?
Could it be, possibly, that they want to make sure that they emotionally removed their intellectual liability to convince and are about to advocate force to achieve their ends?
I don't know, but the more I observe modern liberals and social conservatives who use this falsehood, the more I see it used in the context of them advocating using force against their fellow human beings while I am arguing against that concept.
They obviously believe that I can't be convinced (I can be, any time -- just make the case and prove me wrong and I will change on a dime. I always have) and that I must be forced to do their will. Meanwhile, I always hold out hope that one argument, one fact, or hopefully, time will change them.
I have faith in them and in reason. They seem to have faith neither in other people nor in the power of reason. Thus they advocate force.
I am highly uncertain of this idea, but I've been personally seeing more and more evidence for it -- the ones who say people can't be convinced are the same people who want to use violence or the threat of violence to attain their ends.
