There are so many people here I want to debate but at the same time I honestly worry if i'm wasting my time trying to change people's perceptions

@SW-User true, but changing isn't necessary. Being willing to listen and discuss and learn from said discussion, that's the important thing.

@Serenitree Isn't that change?

@SW-User you would only change if you found anything that was relatable to you. In my opinion, without change, there is no growth. Without change the wheel would never have been invented, and without the wheel, nothing else would ever have progressed.

Learning from a discussion, doesn't necessarily mean you would change. You might learn that you were right all along, but now you know something else. You know that you aren't just stuck in your own little ignorant rut. You're willing to hear other ideas. If that's a change for someone, and they don't welcome that change, they are stubborn. We never have to listen to anything that we find offensive, and we never have to embrace any new ideas that we hear, but refusing to at least acknowledge that the idea is out there, is just plain foolish.

If not for change, you and I wouldn't be having this chat right now.

@Serenitree I may listen to what others think, but if I don't agree with them already then there is no use expecting me to. Changing one's views is too much like adapting to change and (Heaven forbid) letting go of the past, a task about as easy as lifting up the Rock of Gibraltar and lobbing it all the way to Saturn.

@Serenitree I agree some can be, but most are not willing to listen no matter how convincing your argument or facts are. :/

@SW-User they are the ones who's minds are made up and won't believe that something is dangerous, even as they lay dying from doing it. If I am not willing to discuss, then I will learn nothing.

When I come here, I learn new things every day. It's amazing how many things I've believed all my life, that turned out to be false. Someone says something. It's totally different from what I think. Off I go, looking for the information I need to show them that they are wrong. Not so amazingly, I discover they are right, and I've been misinformed.

This to me, is life at its most exciting; learning, and if possible, teaching too. I find I learn nothing from people who think exactly as I do, so I like to discuss differences of opinion, as long as it has nothing to do with religion or politics. Too many hot heads floating around those topics.

@Serenitree Hmm. I am inclined to be suspicious of the word "debate". It is usually a euphemism for "argument", and that is only one step away from trolling. I think it's a lot better for us all if we hold on to our own fixed opinions and at the same time agree to differ when others express their own fixed opinions that differ from our own.

@NankerPhelge okay. Then that is what we must do, because you aren't able to sway my thinking.

@Serenitree I have no intention of swaying your thinking, Serenitree. Who am I to even think I could? Your way of thinking is yours, and mine is mine. Life is better when people are fixed and unchangeable, whether they agree with each other or not. It helps to keep the status quo.

@LesDeplorable both sides seem to have that problem

@LesDeplorable You're either a bigot or an sjw just because you don't share the same view on something. Either way someone in these crowds is going to grow the fuck up and learn how to have a conversation

@SW-User not necessarily dense, but certainly set in their thinking, which to me is sad. I like to explore new ideas and I can't do that without someone expressing an idea, of which I have never heard, or not considered.