I have, after many conversations and arguments, concluded that some aspects of understanding are about information. But others are about will–people understand what they want to understand, what they believe is in their interest to understand. (Source)
In my experience, with some very rare exceptions, the only people who are persuadable are people who have not already formed an opinion or who have experienced something so devastating to their previously held worldview that they are vulnerable or open to almost any alternative explanations to the ones they once held.
I would say, though, that while you can find as many people on the left who are as unpersuadable as those on the right, rationalists, who tend to lean left because of their modern commitment to rationality and evidence-based assertions, are persuadable so long as you operate within the limits of their rationalist framework. So, for instance, discussions about religious faith with such people almost always go nowhere.
But I'd rather deal with someone whose framework for evaluation is open to factual information that might change his mind than to those like the "birthers" for whom no facts are relevant except those that fit within and support their rigidly constructed, a priori worldview.
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