Gosh Darn (edited), Real Politics is Hard

I was just hanging out with a bunch of folks I really like and respect.  Somebody (not me) made some comment that I would describe as straight from Fox News.  So I tried as best as I could (I swear) to explain why I thought that position was understandable, but ultimately misguided, and suddenly I was fucking Karl Marx risen from the dead.  I laid out all the information I could muster, and when people didn't believe what I said, I told them that seriously, they could trust the numbers I put out there.  The response I got was that I may have the numbers, but they understood the reality.  I tried to explain that they understood the anecdote they lived or heard about, but that the numbers gave a better explanation of realtiy.  I got 0 to 1 converts.  Actually, I got zero converts.  That is extremely frustrating.