Are right-wingers incapable of changing their minds?

[Scuba]

On several posts, I have been advised by other DU members not to bother trying to change the minds of right-wingers. Others have suggested dismissing them. Still others suggested that over time, calm, fact-based reasoning can win them over.

What's your opinion?

In discussion with them, I often quote my grandmother who said "a wise man will change his mind, and a fool never will".

Am I just beating my head against the wall?

[Kalun D]

1. Ask ObamaRahma

when it comes to letting the bush tax cuts expire

[lpbk2713]

2. Only if Limbaugh tells them to.

[The Straight Story]

3. The healthy do not need a physician, the sick do (and are LW'ers capable of changing their minds?)

(nt)

[Common Sense Party]

20. I was going to ask the same thing.

How many people here have changed their mind about anything? About the war? About single-payer? About Olive Garden?

[RandomThoughts]

4. I have heard that said.

Here is the thing, it is not about what other people choose to do, but what you choose to think and feel.

If you really want to beat them, not that that matters.

Show them you do not respect them, prove why you do not, and they will realize what they are, and either correct things, or have to live with that knowledge.

I do believe they will pay and correct my issues, but the thing is, doing that can only help them, since it does not matter for me if they do or not, only for their eventual outcome.

:shrug:

And if posting here does nothing, then what is lost?

[griffi94]

5. other

you can't change their minds because they are incapable of ever admitting any mistakes.
look how many still think invading iraq was a good idea.

to change your mind you have to be willing to accept that your first position was wrong.
i've never seen right winger that could do that.

i used the calm fact based approach with a friend of mine about the deficit and economy.
showed him stats that trickle down didn't work and in fact removed money from the economy.
he looked at all of it and agreed that that the consolidation of wealth and continued reaganomics were responsible for the economic crisis.

the next time i saw him a couple of weeks later he was right back to it's all the welfare queens and lazy people wanting handouts and tax and spend liberals.

[flvegan]

6. Minds? What minds?

[AsahinaKimi]

22. +1

eom.

[The Magistrate]

23. There You Go, Sir: It Is Clearly A Trick Question

[Radical Activist]

7. A certain 20%-30% are brainwashed.

Only a major life changing incident will make them reconsider their views.

But you still have to make the argument to those with more open minds. And once in a great while someone does change. I wouldn't spend a lot of time expecting them to change but it occasionally happens.

[zeemike]

8. Other because I don't believe in giving up.

But we must know that most will not change until they have a life altering experience....I point out that many Germans were convinced that Hitler would pull a new weapon out of his ass and they would win the war even as the Russians were on the outskirts of Berlin....such is the power of delusion.
so yes they can change....but it will take hardship and pain to make it so.

[Politicalboi]

9. I had to vote on giving up

Look at Sarah. Do I need to say anymore? They don't see her as a nitwit she is. Everyday she and Faux Noise gives them a reason to change their minds. It's hopeless.

[Ozymanithrax]

10. Politics is like religion. Conversion to the other (evil) side is rare.

People almost never change their minds and will find proofs to justify their view.

Now, where discussion helps is when you have people who have not made up their minds. I fully became a liberal when Reagan tried to revoke the raise the military received from President Carter. I realized that, though I was in the military and supposedly a wonderful hero to Republicans, the leadership just considered us another batch of useful idiots who could starve for all they cared. That realization colored my thinking, and I have steadily moved left since.

But at the time, I had not made up my mind about politics.

[Enthusiast]

26. It's a damn shame that

there aren't more open minded people like yourself. You made observations and based your choice on these observations.

[Bonhomme Richard]

11. I have decided yesterday to give up talking politics to...

my republican friends. It is absolutely no use. Even when they agree with you on points and everything you say is fact and can be documented it still doesn't matter. At dinner the other night I started to mention Linda McMahon and one woman there said I'm voting for her. I just didn't get it. She works for the local town government and her husband is a contractor trying to drum up any kind of work he can. That's when it hit me that I am wasting my time and the only thing I accomplish is making myself crazy and thinking less of our friends. These friends voted for McCain and the only reason they gave was because their daughter went to the naval academy with his son. I give up.

[Lyric]

12. A tiny, tiny percentage who aren't rabidly dedicated, perhaps.

I'm afraid that the best we can hope for with the other 99.999999% of them is to politically neuter them, because they're never going to change.

[nevergiveup]

13. First you have to get their attention

and if you have ever supervised a class of preschoolers you know how difficult this is.

[Jamastiene]

14. Their problem isn't just ignorance...

Their problem is willful ignorance. There is a difference between someone who is ignorant and someone who is willfully ignorant. The willfully ignorant types REFUSE to hear the facts. They'll never believe you or listen to you no matter how hard you try. You can tell them facts until you run out of breath. You'll be there until the day you die trying to convince those assholes.

You cannot teach them what they REFUSE to learn. That's just the way they are. Once they become willfully ignorant assholes of that caliber, they STAY willfully ignorant assholes of that caliber. End of story.

You are much better off talking to a brick wall then fighting for that brick wall's rights so it can vote. You might stand a better chance with that than convincing a right winger of anything. Period.

[Enthusiast]

25. Nice post.

My wife and I frequently say "I might as well tell the dog." At least the dog will tilt her head and try to comprehend what we are saying.

The problem with the Republican point of view is that it is composed of thousands of built up misconceptions and ultra biased talking points. These misconceptions form an insurmountable barrier to understanding the world. It is sort of like a science fiction 'force field'.

Take one simple example - global warming. If sea level rose tomorrow by three feet they would consult the 'global warming is a hoax' region deep in their memory before they declared, "This is just a natural cycle. or, This is due to sun spots."

[deacon]

28. Yes. n/t

[Bitwit1234]

15. They will never change their minds they are FOOLS

you said it.....

[Brickbat]

16. Other: No.

[Swamp Rat]

17. The only cure is a complete frontal lobotomy,

which is more thorough than just watching Fux Noise.

[gophates]

18. You can't reason with stupid.

You can only hope to discredit them and eventually render their hate, fear, and stupidity incompetent.

[Common Sense Party]

19. Other: By screaming at them in McDonald's as they try to eat their Egg McMuffins

I have it on good authority that this works wonders with octogenarians.

[HughBeaumont]

21. They're incapable of changing their clothes and fashion sense from the Bush I 1990s.

What makes anyone think they'll be the same way with their minds??

Red, White and Blue . . . put together . . . only looked good on Liberace, goddamnit.

[Skittles]

24. they believe what their dittomasters tell them to believe

[Enthusiast]

27. Why doesn't this interesting poll

and thread have any recommendations. I believe it is because the DU Republicans don't want us to expose their true nature.