Comment by Eisenstein

What's your strategy for solving problems where there are diverse viewpoints if there is no desire to convince anyone else? Rhetoric is time proven set of communication standards that allow us to demonstrate the validity of our positions and thus gives us a way to find agreement or at least understand what others think. Few people are completely irrational and understanding why they think what they do, even if one does not agree with them, is important in a system where people have to co-exist with the decisions that effect everyone.

Because the alternative would be to just railroad people who don't agree, and even when it does work in one's favor the pendulum tends to swing back hard in response.