Accept their premise and you’ve got no chance.

It’s virtually impossible to have a conversation with someone whose going-in premise is not true.

For instance:

Being a politician means maintaining certain uniform positions—you are always for or against certain things and that never changes. The reason it never changes is because your positions are highly principled, so when you have changed them, you really haven’t. If, on the other hand, your opponent changes his or her position, it’s a disastrous flip-flop.

Reporting the news is not about getting the facts right; it’s about fairness. And fairness is based on letting people on each side of the issue speak for the same amount of time. Both must be given the same weight. You must not make judgments; that's not being a good reporter. And reporting is what you do. You never say, “that’s not true.”

Christianity is about obeying the Bible. You don’t interpret; you obey. Interpreting is putting your word above God’s word. And all real Christians have understood and obeyed the same Bible since the beginning of time. That's how we know it's true and has got to be obeyed.

Normal is what your family and friends believe, do, love, hate or dress like. That’s why they call it common sense. And you know it’s right because the only ones who question it are people who think they’re smarter than you, which automatically makes them wrong, and probably dangerous to our way of life, because they’re not normal and don’t have common sense.

None of this is true, of course. But thinking like it, in all sorts of areas, forms the basis of much of what you read and hear.

You’ve got no chance with these people.