Sadly, it seems true that no amount of rational discussion will have any significant impact on the views of most people...
I believe that rational discussion
can have a significant impact on people, and we may not even be aware of it.
Here at RR on any given thread, there may be 5-6 ranters posting. On an average week, about 50 registered ranters sign in and spend some time here, even if they are not actively posting. That's 10X the number of active posters on a particular thread. Plus, there are many times that who are lurking and not registered.
So, your rational discussion of a topic could well be positively impacting the thinking of hundreds of people a week, just here at RR. There are people who have lurked here for years without ever having posted one thing, yet their thinking is challenged and changed, not by ridicule, but by rational discussion.
