Why I Seek Converts

I recently Tweeted:

I don’t want to crush, humiliate, frighten, silence, irritate, defeat, discredit, demoralize, delegitimize, depress, frustrate, or ostracize my intellectual opponents. I want to convert them and be friends.

— Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan) November 11, 2018

The first sentence won wide acclaim, but the second sentence provoked much criticism.  Why do I want to “convert” my intellectual opponents rather than learn from them?

I have several partial answers:

1. Of course I want...