Have you ever changed your mind

[Jed Dilligan]

to someone else's point of view because they called you an idiot or a traitor, screamed at you, or told you to STFU?

There are posters here who seem to think this works, and I wonder if that's borne up at all in anyone's life experience.

[TexasProgresive]

1. It never really works

some people who are weak willed might say to the bully that they agree with him/her but not deep down.

[Turbineguy]

2. No

I just add them to the list of people I can say "I told you so!" to later.:evilgrin:

[trof]

3. 'Course not.

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. There will always be people who do not know, or understand, how to debate well.

And their frustration, which results in what appear to be heated attacks, is born of this inability to articulate their views cohesively and convincingly.

[Jed Dilligan]

5. Yet they so often claim masterful debating (no pun intended)

skills, and use technical rhetorical terms like "ad hominem" or "strawman" as an ape uses its own feces...

[Gidney N Cloyd]

6. On the other hand, if EVERYone is calling you an idiot, etc., you might want to think it over.

:)

[Jed Dilligan]

12. Yes and no...

I've watched a few of my personal views go from the deep margins to the middle of the road in these past 7 years, so I know the collective isn't always right.

[Bluzmann57]

7. No

In fact, if people call me names or scream at me, I either ignore them or it makes my position even more rigid than before.

[Jed Dilligan]

13. Definitely.

My strongest positions are the ones that people have screamed at me about.

[Buzz Clik]

8. I've been on the fence, and I've swung away from hysterical types.

When someone resorts to silly debate tactics, I assume that they have nothing to support their point of view.

[Jed Dilligan]

9. I'm very much on the fence when it comes to candidates,

and I can't say the noble behavior of any of their supporters has made me more likely to vote for one than another.

[Buzz Clik]

10. Well, I don't rely on anything I read at DU about the candidates.

The supporters of any candidate are convinced their candidate walks on water and often try to tell us that others (particularly the front runners) are spawned from the loins of demons. I've come to find it amusing, but not too informative.

[Jed Dilligan]

11. I wouldn't rely on it either,

but I think it's a shame that the majority of posts about candidates are dis-informative.

[AtomicKitten]

14. never

I have, however, changed my mind on issues such as impeachment not in small part due to those that have argued eloquently on the subject without using the various unsavory techniques tantamount to hitting a person upside the head with a 2 x 4.

[ieoeja]

15. All the time.

Clearly the people who are most aggressive in telling me to STFU are very passionate about their candidate. And the candidate who inspires the most passion is the one for me!

Seriously though, I did reach a point a couple weeks ago where I started to seriously dislike one of our candidates because of a certain poster on this board. But I stepped back a bit to cool off and was able to again disassociate that poster from the candidate s/he supports. The candidate obviously can not pick his/her every supporter.

On the other hand, had the election been held the following day while I was still full of disgust at that poster....

[ieoeja]

16. Actually, this is linked to the Hillary distrust.

Sort of.

The Democratic nominee was probably going to win in '92. 12 years of Reagan-Bush were enough. The Republics had lost their energy, while was a mild backlash coming against Reaganism. I was a swing voter in those days (I actually voted for Bush in '88), but I was ready to re-center the United States.

Which is why I felt betrayed by Clinton. Just about the only thing Left that Clinton did was gun control, and I happen to be pro-gun! He came out looking none too competent on on health care. And he ended up looking like a complete weakling on the gays in the military issue.

But the Right attacked him so strongly that I spent the next eight years too focused on defending him from assholes to concentrate on how much disappointed I would otherwise have been.

And that's why you see folks like me taking the Anybody But Clinton route today. I feel like I was betrayed by her hubby, so have no intention of supporting her today.

Somehow I became a leftwing extremist without ever changing my position on a single damned issue. We need to re-center so I can go back to being a swing voter.