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Notes -
I bet you've heard the phrase "living well is the best revenge." I think it's also the best argument. There are so many ideas, or larger schemas, that are alluring in abstract. See: every teenager's politics. But far fewer paradigms are actually effective in practice. (Granted, which ones work does vary somewhat based on the local circumstances / environment.)
Living out one's ideals is a costly signal of sincerity, and achieving success and happiness by doing so is the least refutable argument. This is a big reason why religion is so persistent despite sounding batshit crazy from the outside — and I say this as a religious person. The philosophy makes sense once you fit yourself inside of it, but the incentive to attempt that in the first place, despite the context of a secular overculture, is that religious people are more likely to thrive.
Anyway, my question is, why don't more culture warriors pursue this path, of exemplifying why their chosen philosophy is good? Am I wrong that it's the most convincing way to advocate for one's ideals? Or maybe everyone is indeed trying to do this, and most just don't seem very effective from my particular vantage point / vis-a-vis my conception of the good life? Perhaps it's a selection effect where people who deeply care about what everyone else is doing are less likely to be happy, point blank, so anyone discernible as a culture warrior is already precluded from "living well is the best argument" unless they learn to give less of a shit in general.
Edit: Apologies for not responding individually, this ended up getting more responses than I expected. But I appreciate you all and am pondering your points!
No, you're not wrong at all. In my experience the best way - sometimes the only way - to convince someone of your way of life is to just quietly live a good life being a good person. Sooner or later people start asking questions like "what makes him so happy", or "I was taught that X are bad people, so why is he seemingly such a good person?". That doesn't itself convince them, but it gets them to open their minds, and can lead to opportunities for further persuasion.
The culture warriors don't do this because they aren't actually prioritizing convincing people of their ideals. They want to enforce their ideals on people, convincing is simply gravy if they can get it. So they act accordingly. They use power to enforce their vision with an iron fist, all while driving people further and further away from them.
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