Don't Allow Yourself To Become Intellectually Crippled
You know, it's actually good to have a dominant hand, as in being righthanded or lefthanded.
But if you're lefthanded, it doesn't mean that you can't use your right hand at all.
That's being crippled.
In the same way, if you are incapable of taking opposing thoughts seriously, without endorsing them, then that's being intellectually crippled.
Instead, try to develop at least some skill in thinking clearly from both sides of an argument.
Become intellectually ambidextrous.
You won't lose anything in the process. In fact, your cognitive abilities will increase exponentially.
Listening to your opponent is not compromising. It's not being out of integrity. It's simply wanting to genuinely understand his or her position—what they actually believe.
Then you can argue in GOOD FAITH, which means you're more interested in learning the truth than you are in winning the argument.
If you listen to your opponent in good faith, their ideas will start to make sense, even if you still disagree.
And their ideas will sound WAY different from what you hear in your echo chamber.
If you truly want to know why the other side thinks the way they do, ask THEM, not their critics.
Don't let other people do your thinking for you. Your mind needs to be ambulatory, not bound to a wheelchair that other people push around.
Walking in someone else's shoes for a mile doesn't mean you have to throw away your own.