MargenHardly anyone is convinced by an argument. What almost always happens is more human and sadder: they change people first, and the opinion arrives later, like luggage.
We believe what the people who matter to us believe. When the circle changes, the creed changes, and then we invent the reasons that make the choice feel like ours. Logic does not move us: it puts make-up on the move that belonging already made.
This is not cynicism, it is caution. Before arguing with someone else's idea, it is worth asking whom they would no longer be able to look in the eye if they dropped it. We almost never defend a thesis; we defend a table we still want to sit at again.