Has Fluther changed your political views in any way?

No, I am still my liberal self.

Not a great deal, although it has given me added understanding of some of the issues that right-wingers care about. It might be helpful of all political animals participated in such a forum, as we each might begin to better grasp the motivations of those with differing opinions and see how compromise might be reached.

No, why should the views of others that disagree with me change my views?

Conservative as always. But I will admit that some of my views have softened while others have hardened. I can’t think of anything where I’ve done an ‘about face’.

No, just educated me more.

No, only solidified them.

Still a godless Communist, even moreso than before.

Not yet, though discussion on other sites has changed my views in the past.

@Mikewlf337 It’s not their views that would change your mind, but rather their arguments. Rational people change their beliefs if and when their old ones are refuted.

@SavoirFaire are you saying mine are refuted? There are arguments on both sides on everthing. opinions are like assholes, everybody has one, especially when it involves politics.

Politically I am the same.

However, I have found what Simone de Beauvoir has to say, always, about gender and sexuality fascinating and enlightening.

I’m liberally apolitical. running, ducking, dodging bullets. hahaha

@Mikewlf337 I was merely explaining the process in response to your having expressed confusion over how disagreement might lead to a change in beliefs. Yes, there are arguments on both sides of everything; but not all arguments are equally good.

@SavoirFaire Well it hasn’t happened here on fluther as far as changing my mind is concerned(knock on wood). It may have changed the minds of some other people but some people are easier to change than others. I am not one of those people who are easily changed.

I enjoy hearing other perspectives and I would say that not necessarily politically, but in so many diverse areas of life, I have been educated and expanded by considering the other point of view.

I find it interesting that so many say they have not been changed at the least. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or bad.

I hope to learn and grow until I die. To not do so seems rigid and like a serious case of tunnel vision.

Not really. Political discussions here are enlightening in terms of showing different points of view, but aren’t usually very deep. People get pissed off or give up before we have a chance to really dig into the issues.

I love the discussions when the original poster is really trying to learn and leads with a question that isn’t just reinforcing a closed minded opinion, slamming a group, or just taking an opportunity to get on a soapbox for some political cause without looking for any real answers or others’ opinions of what they believe. I’ve seen some good discussions like that on Fluther and I’ve been educated. I love to research what people say. Not to disprove the information, but to get more information and insight into various subjects.

Why would it?

Nothing really changes my mind except the truth. Long live Sarah Palin!

“If in the last few years you haven’t discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead.”
—Gelett Burgess

I would suggest that being difficult to convince is no more of a virtue than being easy to convince. Insofar as it is unlikely that any one of us is correct about everything, I recommend open-mindedness tempered with skepticism when approaching any given argument.

Bumper sticker slogans might incite a gut reaction, but they don’t change too many minds, I don’t think. Sadly, the nature of short responses in a forum such as this tend to be along the lines of bumper sticker slogans. I’ll listened to well-written, considered responses of any stripe (even if I don’t believe them), but I find that the true exchange of reasoned ideas decreases in proportion to the rise in emotional tension in any discussion. And when we’re all faceless and anonymous on an Internet Q&A site like Fluther, the emotions rise quickly as we let out to play that which we would normally keep hidden for social propriety when discussing such things in person.

@SavoirFaire – excellent quote and reasoning, lurve to you!

Hell no. Takes alot more than this to sway my way of thinking.

Wow. I have never understood why people have pride in not changing their views on things. I was always taught to keep an open mind and to readjust my beliefs as I learn more.

Nope!

I have an open mind and I love to learn new ideas but I ignore the obviously irrational and immature views of others.

Yeah right! That’ll be a resounding no then!

Ha! Good thing none of us are set in our ways. Instead, we all enjoy the great good fortune about already being right about everything we believe.

@ETpro Some people who claim to be open minded tend to only be open minded with views they agree with. Most of the comments on this thread and comments on other threads has proven that a lot of people are actually not as open minded as they claim to be.

@Mikewlf337 What you say is certainly true. However, I think its worse to take pride in it. At least if you want to be open minded, there is a chance you can be (or become).

@Mikewlf337 Argumentation is not proof of lacking open-mindedness, and the fact that one’s mind has not changed does not mean that a person did not think about the arguments presented to him before responding. After all, we don’t want to be so open-minded that our brains fall out. That’s why we need the healthy dose of skepticism.

@SavoirFaire Never said it was lack of open mindedness. It’s not good to be “too liberal” or “too conservative” as far as this thread is concerned. On some occasions some flutherites have been insulted for just saying something to the contrary of what another has said. That to me is an extreme example of closed mindedness. I am not saying I am the most open minded person in the world but I am also not closed minded. If you remember the thread about smoking then you should know that I am as stubborn as a flippin mule. Still I am not close minded nor is my mind wide open.

@Mikewlf337 I would need an actual example to say whether or not anyone was actually reacting to being contradicted or whether they were reacting to being contradicted in an offensive way. I’ve certainly seen people interpret disagreement as a personal insult, however, which was one of the motivations behind this question.

And I’ll just leave the smoking question alone. I said what needed to be said there.

@SavoirFaore: Non seulement tu sais faire, mais tu es encore diplomatique.

@SavoirFaire Usually the examples are moderated before long. I am happy to say I don’t have any examples to show you. The mods do a good job. I say my opinion. you say yours and hopefully we mutually respect one another. I just have a different view of the world than you.

@gailcalled Merci beaucoup! C’est très gentil de ta part.

@Mikewlf337 Well, I wasn’t asking for actual examples. That would be inappropriate, as it would be picking on specific people. I just meant I wouldn’t want to judge in advance, as the one doing the contradicting might actually be doing it offensively. Again, I’ll leave our differences of opinion alone. Where they are merely matters of opinion, we must simply agree to disagree. Where we have different beliefs about matters of fact, we’ll just have to accept that we cannot always convince everyone.

@Mikewlf337 I am actually pretty sure I am open minded, but the poinions I hold strongly have come from a great deal of study and facts. THey are evidence based. To change one of those opinions, someone needs to show superior evidence that contradicts what I currently hold to be true. That;s happened numberous times in my life, and evey time I have had no problem changing my opinion. But nobody is going to get me to believe what I hold to be false just by the shrillness of their assertions it’s true, or by obvious spin and spreading confusion as knowledge.

“Know Thyself” was inscribed on Appolo’s temple at Delphi. Great advice, but so very hard for a human being to follow. Psychological testing shows that on subject after subject, the least knowledgeable of us rate ourselves much higher than we test. The gap narrows as you approach perfection, and true experts tend to slightly underrate their test performance. The goal has to be that on anything of life-directing importance, we always work to be at the top end of that curve. And if we know w aren’t, then the safe thing is to say, “I haven’t made up my mind yet.”