Yes, its really frustrating to see how we have been led into a culture war. And of course when they attack minorities we have to push back, but at the same time there are so much more important issues heavily affecting everyone, including minorities. Hope there will be some day when taxing corporations is just as hot topic as whether trans people should sport nowadays.

I think for most of history almost no one had any rights, then technological advancements (printing, internet, etc.) shook that system up and gave a chance for people to grab some bits of power. Now the system is stabilizing according to these new developments, and the power is getting centralized again. Im not sure if this is unstoppable, but sometimes it seems like it.

I agree that people cant really be convinced by proving them wrong on the spot. However, if someone is just a little bit interested in being rational, then after going home over time they will think about that question again and again, until they resolve that dissonance, not necessarily, but potentially by changing their mind. I would assume that this would be somewhat hard to study, but if you have some good resources on this im interested. Its just that when people constantly hear from their leaders that faith is a virtue and even more virtuous when practiced despite strong evidence to the contrary (i was raised christian, and i experienced this there, i would assume its somewhat similar in Islam), then they will be a lot less likely to go through this.