One of the most pervasive human traits is never wanting to admit that one is wrong. The worst approach you can take with anybody is say that they are "stupid" and "wrong" in their beliefs. All that will do is force them to dig in and defend their beliefs no matter how wrong they are.
Parents make this mistake with their children all the time. The natural state of children when they reach adolescence is to rebel against their parents and other authority figures.
It's human nature. We even see it here on the Free Republic.
We need to learn not to be "preachy" and judgmental towards others who do not share our beliefs. That is a sure way way to make them lock themselves into their flawed beliefs as they do not want to admit they were wrong and thus lose face.
Let them come around on their own.
And when (or if) they do come around, never, ever, tell them "I told you so."
I told her I could understand where she was coming from; it’s hard to have the emotional energy to deal with all the venom floating around.
She knows things are bad. She just has no fight left. I can’t get milk out of a turnip. But I feel badly that she has given up. And I wonder if what in the end will defeat any chance at turning this thing around is that the Deep State has already beaten everybody to death.
I wish I could be Samwise Gamgee. I can’t carry Frodo’s ring for him, but I can carry him when he is too weak to keep going. I wish I knew how to do that for her, and for anybody else like her who doesn’t even have the strength to raise their head and see hope.
What I’m hearing here is that maybe I need to start raising hope generally, by coming up with ways to make an impact on those who may not be as demoralized as my sister, and maybe when she sees some things happening - maybe just in her peripheral vision - she will dare to raise her head.
I know I can’t beat anybody over the head and expect to win them over.