I'm a skeptic and have been following (although not actively participating) that community for years.
I shed my religious beliefs when I was about 20 years old. A few years after that I discovered James Randi and randi.org
Then came Phil Plait. A huge star on the skeptic scene with his wonderful science blog "Bad Astronomy" (which is actually good).
The skeptic community is full of delightful people who have many names and faces you'd recognize. Unfortunately they are among the most despised people on earth. As unbelievers they are considered by a majority of Americans to be unfit for public office. Fortunately skeptics are more often ignored than accosted.
But skeptics don't want to be ignored. They want to change the world and as such, sometimes, they can be dicks.
Bring in Phil Plait. Awesome guy and the community is abuzz over his talk regarding us skeptics being such assholes.
It is a wonderful. The take away is simple "Don't be a dick".
His speech is all about how to change minds and it isn't by shouting or criticizing or name calling.
View the video here at his blog, here:
Don't be a dick
I post this here on Kos because of some many commonalities between the skeptic movement and progressives. Both communities consider themselves reality-based, both try to convince with reasoned arguments, and both get frustrated and bitchy at times.
While I'm here, I'll also recommend this podcast:
Mistakes were made
The podcast talks about cognitive dissonance as a cause of irrational beliefs, recognizing it, and reasoning around it.
Both, the video and the podcast, are excellent discussions about what to do and not to do in changing people's minds from firm set beliefs.
Because you can change people minds from life long convictions. You just gotta know how and not be a dick about it.