You have just three choices when you post, and the one we want most is not one of them

[CreekDog]

you can make someone happy with what you post.

you can make someone angry with what you post.

you can tell someone something they didn't know (and if you are credible, they may believe it).

but you cannot change their mind.

------------------------------------

thus, if you have a goal when you post, you might consider how effective your post will be in service of a do-able goal.

but i can't change your mind. :P

[Ozymanithrax]

1. Only the other person can change his mind...

I like having discussions.

If someone says something bogus, I will tell them so.

If it is a matter of opinion, I'll give them mine.

I have changed my mind about issues through discussion here. It will happen again.

[lunatica]

2. I've been educated a great deal by posts on DU

That can be considered changing someone's mind I think. Education always changes minds.

[CreekDog]

3. yes, but it was your decision to have your mind changed

a lot of annoying posts are written as if their stridency was key in making someone think differently than they already did.

i think it's more than just a semantical difference.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. Me too.

I've also occasionally admitted to being wrong when I was educated by someone who knew more than I did and who was able to discuss civilly and bring substance to a discussion. And when I say substance, sometimes that is provided by original thoughts and insights not just outside corroboration of a point they were making. One of the stranger discussions/debates I recall here was with someone who was very well known for demanding "link?" even when I was presenting what was clearly just my own opinion. Tiresome.

[TZ]

4. Or

Like me, you can post just to vent. :)

[Peacetrain]

6. I buy that completely..

Edit to add.. a Big K and R on that also

[tekisui]

7. New information, ideas or questions.

[pscot]

8. You can also

prove that you're a complete idiot. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Go2Peace]

9. Or you can post 40 OPs a day trying to flood the site with spin

and attempt to enforce "message discipline" and get everyone arguing all the time ;)

But you are right. Wrong site to do that. People here are fairly well educated and have more independent minds. There are better sites than DU if one is looking always to change people's opinions.

[Mimosa]

10. Those message spin 'activists' drive me crazy LOL

I often wonder if they are paid. Not much, but just a bit, to reinforce talking points or control damage.

This board IS where the base is....

[QC]

11. Yes, that is an increasingly popular option.

And when people do not react positively to the loyalty enforcement brigade's spin, they can retreat to a special protected forum dedicated to trashing members of this site.

[CreekDog]

12. Spin is counterproductive here, nobody believes that crap

It wasn't until a ton of people defended expanded oil drilling here that I was actually motivated enough to do enough research to confirm the crappiness of the idea...which ultimately led me to post against the idea, which I probably wouldn't have done had I *not* seen dozens of posts defending the thing.

So yeah, to those folks: not helping!

[Fly by night]

13. I disagree. One person can change another's mind on an issue.

Case in point: We are working to re-establish Tenbnessee's medical cannabis program. The only physician in our legislature (a conservative rural Republican) was pretty consistent in his opposition to the bill and he carried a lot of weight in the debate. However, after he spent a half hour one-on-one with a young rheumatoid arthritis sufferer who uses cannabis as a substitute for the majority of the pharmaceuticals prescribed for him, the physician/legislator emerged from the meeting saying "I cannot deny the reality of a person's personal and medical experience." With that change-of-mind (precipitated wholly by one person articulating his experience to that physician), our bill moved forward, picking up other Republican votes (thus reflecting that our physician's change-of-mind also caused many of his colleagues to change theirs also.)

Any open mind can be changed by the facts, the logic and the experience of another person.

If the mind is open and the ego is in check.

One of the best sentences I ever learned from friends is "You might be right."

[CTyankee]

14. I agree. I've changed my mind on some important subjects here on this Board

because of other dedicated DUers earnestly and cogently arguing their case. Because I felt they were acting in good faith and what they said made sense (and I hadn't considered it the way they presented it), I realized that I had not gotten all of the information...

[ProSense]

15. Do people really post things to make other posters happy or unhappy?

Don't people just post whatever the hell they feel like posting? I know I do. How other people respond to it---happy, angry or indifferent---is up to them.