Deconversion is hard, but possible

Texan freethinkers 'debaptise' using a hair dryer.
It's very rare for people to publicly renounce formerly
held beliefs, and this one is obviously tongue-in-cheek.

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A good friend of mine who likes to discuss with religious people, conspiracy theorists, tin foil hats and others, recently asked in frustration why she had never deconverted anyone, despite having shown with great effort that some conspiracy theory is wrong, a certain 'medicine' is quackery, research was conducted pseudoscientifically, dogma is flawed and so on. Can you never actually talk someone out of a bullshit idea? Well, you certainly can, as I can confirm from amongst other things my own experience: other people talked lots of misconceptions out of my head as well, for which I'm quite grateful to them now. But don't expect someone to immediately shout out loud: 'Oh wow, I was so stupid!'

In most cases people won't convert instantly, let alone publicly. This is because everyone likes to think of themselves as intelligent, and so they take great pride in knowing what they think they know. Realising they're wrong about something, especially if you've been promoting it for years, induces shame, and even more to admit openly. (For example, Mark Lynas says he is ashamed it took him '15 years to learn to think for myself on [GMOs]' (2:04)). When you can no longer  reduce your cognitive dissonance, you tend to quietly change your mind and henceforth pretend you've always thought the way you do now, so you don't have to lose face. It's very human and understandable that someone won't publicly admit being wrong, especially because you run the risk that others will laugh at you and mock you for having believed nonsense. That fear keeps you 'in the closet', and forces you to maintain your old standpoint for a while longer, even though you know better by then. It is therefore important to anyone who tries to convince someone else to not attack her or him personally, also because this feeds the idea that a belief is part of their –considered unchangeable– identity. (At present, you see this is a huge problem when you criticise Islam; before you know it, one says 'you've just offended 1.some billions of Muslims!'). A belief should be regarded as something independent from the individual, which anyone could fall for, but also everyone could reject  (again) for rational reasons.

As a freethinker/skeptic, I try to not be too emotionally invested in ideas in the first place. The expected disappointment if they would turn out to be untrue, makes you seek the weirdest excuses, and wrestle yourself into the most illogical positions, just to be able to maintain the belief. It's much better to maintain an attitude of doubt, as Theo Maassen said: 'Doubt is important, if only to prepare yourself for the possibility that things are different than you think.'

I know our brain is flawed, that we constantly make mistakes, and all of us fall for nonsense sometimes. We can best resolve that to be ready to correct ourselves when we discover, or others point out, that an idea of ours is erroneous. If you're brave enough, you give the right example and publicly admit that you could be wrong, and if you dare also when you think you actually got something wrong (past or present). Show others that it's ok to make mistakes, as long as you correct them and are honest; perhaps they will also more easily come forward when they've freed themselves from a delusion. And consider that you've perhaps already quietly changed lots of people's minds already, even if they don't dare admit it publicly.