"I never expect to change anyone's mind here. Nor in real life. If it happens, great. It seems most people are married to their positions, and many regard their opinions to be as good as facts." - 1PG

I never expect to change a person's opinion here online (though I do know that I have in certain cases). Instead I am always looking for opinions different than my own so I can adjust and sharpen my thinking, maybe even completely change my own views. I actually want to have my views change. People do not understand that when you change your own views, it means you are learning something. I want to learn.

The problem has become that politically, it has become near impossible to find people with significantly different views that can present a rational, cognizant viewpoint. So much of the Trump supporters' views are based on falsehoods, crazy conspiracy, deception, ignoring facts, and just meaningless opinion that was fed to them. As an example of the last (meaningless opinion that was fed to them), in the lead up to the last election so many Trump voters said that one of the reasons they supported Trump over Biden/Harris was that Biden was weak in international relations and Trump was strong. What does that even mean? When I would ask them about concrete specifics, they would either not be able to give any or pointed to things that were simply not true ("There would have been a war with North Korea if it wasn't for Trump"). Many people cannot understand the difference between opinion and fact. They cannot understand the difference between allegations and evidence. They do not understand the there is a difference between bias and accuracy (just because an information source is biased does not mean it cannot have a strong reputation for accuracy, or inaccuracy).