How can I stop worrying about what other people believe?

Serious question.

I understand it’s in my own best interest to learn not to cringe at every contrived conviction, far-fetched faith or preposterous persuasion I come across. I understand I should learn not to rush to every opportunity I get to advocate critical thinking and encourage scepticism. I need to learn to let people be horribly wrong and not care.

The thing is, I can’t get myself to. It feels wrong. It feels like looking the other way, giving up on people, not taking them seriously. I’ve always lived by the principle of always listening to what anyone has to say. And I think it’s my responsibility to try to help people see reason when I think I can.

And when I try to ignore them, I just keep thinking “but I must fight the stupid!” And I’m afraid that eventually I’ll have to reply “no Fyrius, you are the stupid.” And then Fyrius was a bigot.

If only someone could convince me it’s okay that there exist bigots and delusional people and ignorami who think they have all the answers.