My mind is made up, never mind the facts...

hi dawnald I have a friend here who is just like that. Ihave tried to explain to her that after her social security and ssi check have the rent and board taken out she will have one hundred twenty five dollars left. she maintains her daughter looks after that, and doles out ten or twenty dollars to her monthly. I tried to show her my paper work but she did not belive it so I finally just gave up. Either she has a different arrangement than the rest of us or she is being bilked out of money but as she will not believe me or my facts there's nothing I can do. If she has a different arrangement fine but I had just been thinking of her interests and hoping she was not losing out.You can lead a horse to water but you cannot force him to drink. So I just walked away. let her deal with her own stuff or not deal with it.

Hi, D! My boss is just like that. He comes up with some of the most absurd things when he accuses people of wrongdoing. He seems to think everyone's totally dishonest. I think that shows that he's totally dishonest, so I do my best to ignore him completely!

I'm married to someone who gets an idea into his head and cannot change his mind. Sometimes, I will gently explain to him why he's wrong, and he will seem to understand. However, at a later date, I will hear him stating the same misinformation. Usually, it doesn't make any difference in the long run, except to rankle me.

Hey dawn! I have a very serious problem with my "supposed best friend"! No matter what I say to her, she always has to argue with me, even though I am smarter than her and when I say something I know I am speaking from factual evidence! She has a big mouth, thinks she knows everything and will argue any point and think she is right even when proved wrong! I want to kill her most of the time! And she has a very serious mental problem, so I try not to push the issue, but she takes me beyond that point! So, sometimes I end up hanging up on her and she calls me back leaving me nasty voicemails and I just get to the point where I end up losing it! So, she makes it very difficult to just walk away...We have been friends for 47 years, so not an easy thing to deal with!

If it's important, I'll make every effort possible to convince the other person. However, if all my clear and convincing evidence won't persuade them, I have to leave them in the hands of a higher power.

humans, as we are, dawnald, we have our biases. and that also applies strongly to critical thinking. what is at work, i believe, in matters of opinion is the weight an editorial writer puts on logical presentation, which in journalistic parlance is reverse pyramid or deduction. factual information, or the interpretation of facts, relayed or deduced, can be twisted, even demolished by spin doctors, not great philosophers... also, never wake up somebody who's pretending to be asleep... that's the whole point in trying to convince people about certain facts...

Agree to disagree if they are friendly and ignore them if they are not. Life's too short to argue a point with someone who will not accept facts.

I worked for 16 years with someone like that. Because we were very similar in our standards, we got along very well, but other people found him almost impossible; very arrogant, stubborn and one-minded. We had a few disagreements, but I usually let any one-mindedness on his part drop. I find it is useless to argue with someone who won't listen to other viewpoints, but I'll debate for hours with someone with an open mind (and try to keep an open mind myself).

"A mind like a steel trap"... rusted shut. Another example of people totally devoid of critical thinking is when they forward messages without checking them out first.

that article reminds me of my arguments that ended in debates with people around me, every now and then. i know how the author feels. and mostly, i do get irritated by those people who only wants to believe what they know and cannot accept that they are wrong. whenever those things happen to me, i always do my very best to convince them that what i am saying is right. but if they still don't believe me even if i give them proofs, its up to them. at least i've stated my case clearly.

i usually just walk away but if its important to me, I "stew" about it like i told my son. i try but some things just wont go away. in your link, reading that all i can think is the person saying a black guy couldnt have fought??!! and done all that? excuse me thats guy is either stupid, dont really know history, or is highly prejudice!! blacks fought in every one of our wars. even the civil war. where in the he..double toothpicks has he been?!!

I tend to give up. if they want to stay in tehir ignorant little world then i ahve no problem lettingt hem stay there. i'd rather not waste my time trying to convince them as i'll just end up frustrated.

Hi Dawnald!firstly,im a chinese boy and my english is just so so,maybe something can not be express clearly. please don't care. for the ting you say ,i share the feelings of.my teacher,my farther,and lot's of people around me,they are all so.when i told them that they are wrong,they just blindly say that child has no right to speak.do not you thingk it funny.but ,in our country this is normal,and i like them,if what they said was wrong,i'd rather not to duty,because i love them. this is my fist time to write something in english,i hope you can understand.thank you for your read and look forward to your reply.