Are opinions swayed on here or is it all just pointless bickering?

Good question, and something I wonder from time to time. I first started posting here after the IMDb forum was closed because I saw the slow traffic board as an opportunity to have slow burn, in depth conversations on political philosophy or salient issues of interest without the typical BS noise.

That didn't happen.

What early activity there was saw no intellectually honest engagement by leftists. That activity petered out and I stopped coming here for a while. Then I popped in one day and saw some some account had completely spammed up the board with leftist propaganda. Like entire pages. So I started posting to counter it. That account was deleted, either by its own user or admin, but soon they moved the political posters debating on the Trump board and maybe some others over here and other people began showing up, so now it's moderately trafficked.

I still post because I don't want to cede this place and have it turn into a one sided leftist bulletin board. Even if not too many eyes saw it there's always the decent chance that casual passers by could be influenced by it, or conservatives could feel a sense of hopelessness since they've been shut down in so many other places.

After all, people's views do come from some place. It's not always parents. If they were influenced by professors, tv, or media, they could be influenced by learning new things in forums like this. And just because people don't tend to admit they've learned something debating in the heat of the moment, seeds are often planted that could change their views over time.

In tug of war if only one side is pulling then the rope's only going in one direction. If both sides are pulling then maybe the rope remains fixed in place. Even if opposing minds aren't converted, holding serve and preventing people from being swayed by misinformation has value in and of itself.

The stakes, which could hardly be higher, make it worth the effort.

Of course!

Sometimes it can take a few days of processing and cooling down from a debate...

Also you can't 'save face' by finishing a thread a few days later by commenting "You know... you're RIGHT!"

Generally, I'd say not many minds get changed when it comes to politics because everyone comes at it too hot-headed from the get-go. But on other topics, if the other person/people is/are reasonable, other topics can be broached and discussed and minds have definitely been changed.

Every post and heated argument on these boards are time wasters. If posters were truly devoted to their party they would be out there in the real world trying to make a difference. Sitting behind a monitor bickering with the same 3 or 4 people everyday does absolutely nothing for their cause or political beliefs.

My opinion was swayed but it started on IMDB and continued here: I went from being a very apolitical person all my life to suddenly paying a massive amount of attention to politics. Trump is just that bad.

As to how this board has swayed me? I've gone from mildly tolerating Trump's base to downright despising it. I don't hate ALL Trump supporters but I certainly hate the ones here and other sites online.

I guess the other way my opinion has been swayed is that I can now see all the fallacies of our two party system, how it's tearing our country apart and how we're in dire need of a change.

So, I wouldn't credit this board much with swaying me so much as Donald Trump's election swaying me. When Trump won, I woke up and realized it was time to start paying attention to what was happening in this country to a degree I never had done before. Now that THAT genie has been released from the bottle, I now see just how ugly the state of our country is and how many truly bad people reside within it.

So, I know that doesn't adequately answer your question but Moviechat hasn't swayed me--TRUMP has--and it has shown me that, if our country could election DONALD...TRUMP as president AND garner 65 million supporters then what does that say about us? Nothing good.

And, while I feel Donald will lose this election, I know that the problem won't stop with him. Donald is a symptom of a much larger problem. It's all been exposed now. We've seen just how flimsy our system of checks and balances is. We've seen just how fragile our government is. We've seen just how EASY it is for full-fledged corruption to take over from without and within. 65 million...65 MILLION--Americans support Trump all the way. That's scary. This guy is chaos personified and THAT many Americans love it. What does that say about our future? Nothing good. Trump stirred the sediment up to the surface. This has ALWAYS existed and is now just coming to the surface.

I no longer see our nation surviving for long.

No political opinions have ever been swayed. Politics is just yelling back and forth until one person gets tired of the conversation. No one changes opinions, and nothing changes once the discussion or argument is over. Then they start all over again the next day. Haha.

But we all still try to sway people. I think it’s the pursuit, just to let people see your point of view on a variety of topics, and to see that there are people out there who agree with you.

It’s strange, because I hate politics, but I’ve let myself get sucked into posting here frequently. I’m trying like hell to stop and go back to movies...because I was on the IMDb and these message boards because I love movies. I’m hoping to get back to that.