Convincing Insults?

There was this time, in my long gone childhood, when I had a rooted conviction that 2+2 equaled 5. At that time, between my father and my math teacher, I probably learned every possible synonym that could be used to call someone mentally deficient. After being so insulted I eventually conceded that 2+2 may well be equal to 4 after all.
I believe that there are countries in the world today where my math teacher would be out of a job and my father be bereft of one son for such insulting behavior. Considering some sons (like me? NAAH), the father could well consider it a blessing, with the added advantage that the government would also be getting its comeuppance, having to handle that son. (Now, Now, do I look like a Emigration consultant that you want me to urgently send you the information about which those countries are? Google it, guys!)
Anyway, that is a digression, something you guys must be used to from me, by now. The point was that THAT was the last time I ever changed any opinion as a consequence of being insulted. Ever since I became an adult, or hit the age when it pleases Society to call me one, I don't remember learning anything different because I was insulted.
Stands to reason, right? I mean you and I differ on something, you tell me that my brain rattles in the head every time I shake it, what do you expect me to do? Would I rather think that YOU are a fool because that makes it sure that you are wrong in both opinions - the subject at hand and the size of my brain? Or do I accept your opinion about the size of my brain and reassess the subject? Most often, all that happens is that we end up discussing the relative sizes of each others' brains, ranging from pea-sized to nano-meters, and forget what set us off on this biological expedition in the first place.
And, as usual, I assumed the world was all like me. Only to find that, in Social Media, people actually try to convince others by calling them names. Ye Gods! I mean, really, you will call me a congenital idiot and expect me to change my opinion so that you can change YOUR opinion about my genes? Really?
I may be wrong, though. A friend suggests that there is no real intention to try and change people's opinions. There is that strange rush of pleasure, apparently, which comes when people unite to insult someone else. Never felt it myself but then, going by the same friend, I was apparently THAT someone else for all my friends, so there is that.
Or, perhaps, people think that whoever disagrees with them had to be a child...and insults work with a child, as witness the first paragraph. But, then, even with children it works only when it comes from someone they look up to. And if they looked up to you, how could there be a disagreement in opinions?
Anyway, I am antediluvian as everyone knows, so maybe, these days, insults do convince people of how wrong they are.
Or, maybe, even though most of the messages seem alike, I am getting only all those messages intended only for children.
Awright. I am convinced by whatever whoever says. Now stop the insults, sil vous plait?