You’re giving these people way too much credit for being
“reachable”, and wasting far too much breath, and risking carpal tunnel syndrome, by having to in effect “start at the beginning” with them. For 25 plus years, I’ve fruitlessly taken the same tack with bitter-end Liberal relatives, and have come to the sad conclusion that my arguments START at a point their arguments never GET TO. It’s as simple as that.
They don’t have the intellectual curiosity,or the impulse to
try to get to the objective truth about things, that you do:
they’re willing to happily stay in the warmth of their Liberal echo-chamber.
Having said that, your mammoth post (the longest personal post I ever remember seeing on FR)serves it purpose, probably, as a comprehensive statement of the point you’ve gotten to, and a good way of getting down “on paper” where you stand in the ongoing political debate. So——kudos!
But, jeez, don’t say it might come across as “acrimonious”!
These people deserve not just acrimony, but mockery, delivered on a daily basis, the way they give it to us.
BTT
I'm discovering that more and more. It may be the most frustrating thing of all. People who absolutely believe themselves to be smarter than those with whom they disagree, but who have the intellectual curiosity of gnats.
Really, if you think about it, conservatives have won the "argument". Communism lost conclusively, and any one who disagrees with that is free to move to North Korea. European-style welfare state socialism has been demonstrated by recent developments to be just a slower path to bankruptcy by Greece, Spain, Italy, France, etc. And American progressivism has been shown to be in error by the results of the Obama administration in every area of endeavor.
And if you look at any demographic that is "persuadable" in American politics, they've moved to the right in numbers that dwarf the Reagan Era. But the difference is that the Democrats have successfully changed the electorate such that non-persuadable demographics (blacks, Latinos, Asians, single women, gays, welfare recipients, etc.), have become a majority. We can argue until we're blue in the face, but those groups believe that the Democrats are for them, Republicans for those evil rich white straight guys, and that's the end of the story. Scary.