I wouldn’t waste one minute of my time trying to convert a friend or family member. If converting leftists to right-think was a feasible goal, communism would have died in the 20th century. People come to the conclusion to change their life on their own, you can’t change them with arguments. Like a drug addict or an alcoholic, change comes from within, that’s where it starts. Change doesn’t happen because you point out hypocritical points about their beliefs.
“Like a drug addict or an alcoholic, change comes from within,...”
...and the many successful recoveries are tied to a belief in God, and his essential presence in their recovery. Leftism boiled seems to replace God with “man is God” - a real crisis of the soul.
I agree with you on the politics here - one is wasting time, cannot convert another to a different political belief. At best, to say or do something that enables the other side to discover and make their inner conversion. It may take a long time, or never. Some of the unhappiest people in the world are old, retired leftists.
The best one can do is to counter the left at every turn. IOW, their stupid and failed ideas, stuck in the 1800s (that always gets them) are going to be challenged and resisted. They really hate that - too bad.
This is true. The only hope for conversion for many of these people is to have their own ox get gored, to have an injustice perpetrated against them by the left.
People can’t be brought to this by dragging or prodding them. Human nature simply resists it.
But people do see the light. One of the best and most profound examples of this is David Horowitz. He was a dedicated Marxist, a lawyer for the Black Panthers, and he made his conversion to conservatism when a woman who worked for them as well, a secretary, was found murdered.
The Black Panthers simply murdered her because they thought she knew too much.
So, that caused his break with Leftism...and look at what became of him.