I see the point the author is trying to make, but they conveniently left out a major counter example: the last Biden/Trump debate was such a disaster that Biden had to drop out of the race.
this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2025
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And supposedly Kennedy beat Nixon because he was a sweaty mess in their debate
I've read this kind of thing before and I believe it. People mostly change to conform to their in-group.
The other thing that changes people's minds is trauma. Massive, life altering, trauma.
Like if some maga hat gets the absolute shit kicked out of them by the police they worship, like "will never walk again and is blind in one eye", that might be enough to overload the brain and throw out the 'cops are good, actually ' belief. Might be.
And I think it has to happen to them, not just someone close. There's news stories about like people's husband being deported but they still support trump. I think conservatives particularly are bad at empathy, so they won't get it until something happens to them
Yes, it will!
Their take: they couldn't convince Trump voters, so trying is pointless: maybe we shouldn't even have a debate.
My take: Bad debaters. They've been getting worse over time. What's the best move for a bad debater? Don't debate.
It's easy to look at the data and think that people can't be convinced. Yet, its also easy to look at the Trump debates and see they weren't really trying to convince anyone of much.
You can't convince people if you don't really have a message to convince them of aside from "I'm not Trump" and "Trump is bad." They already believed that: Both candidates were bad, and both candidates are bad at delivering the promises. After three elections with Trump, it's really like a broken record at this point.