Belief is largely social. This is true for all of us, to some extent. It doesnât matter much when the social belief is âour baseball team is the bestâ. Unfortunately, the republican worldview is afactual and hateful. Thatâs really the bulk of it, I think. People identify with republicans, or with their neighbors that are republicans, and thatâs the most important thing. More important than facts or truth.
Also thereâs a lot of authoritarians. They want a strong in-group and an out-group to hurt.
So when someone says like âSo-and-so Republican is a rapist, felon, and liarâ that smashes right into the âmy in-group is important, and if i reject my in-group I will die aloneâ part of the brain. So the facts bounce off and they write you off as an asshole.
Fixing that seems difficult. Appealing to a shared group identity can work (eg: weâre all americans here and we want to make the best of our great country, together). You see this sometimes where someone hates some out-group, and then actually meets a member and spends time with them. Now that person might be part of the in-group, and things have to shift around.
The other thing that changes minds is trauma. Horrible trauma. If your house gets blown apart by a hurricane, that might be enough for you to reevaluate your world view.
Anyway, the oatmeal did a comic about belief: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe Hereâs a free book about authoritarians: https://theauthoritarians.org/