ahah, not very. in elementary school, i assumed that i would become a "popular girl" since i had so many friends-- i saw so many teen comedy movies that it seemed inevitable. alas, i lost all my childhood friends and made new ones and became a huge dork! but i think that suits me better anyhow.

Is it True or is it not true?

That friendship is only skin deep
and can it ever be chosen wisely?
It's a silly thing to say I know
friendship is as long as it lasts.

As a student of philosophy and politics, and as an American, you likely came across John Stuart Mills. If I may, I would point out to his defense of free speech or, more specifically, to how he grounds this defense.

Were the masses to rule out certain discourses and ideas, they would certainly rule out those discourses and ideas they disagree with to the greatest extent. However, as Mills rightly points out, it is precisely because these ideas and discourses generate disagreements that they are valuable. Being confronted by difference in opinion is how one grows more knowledgeable, not only of the ideas borne by other individuals, but also of his own ideas. Therefore, enabling censorship to reign, according to Mills, is most costly to the audience and not to the author of what has been censored. Moreover, were all discussions free, everyone could at least have the chance to be confronted by different claims and, in the effort to defend their convictions, they could grow wiser.

It is this intuition that I would like you to follow. Of course, there might be some truth to your opinion and your community might indeed be filled by disingenuous people. However, I do reckon that politics and ethics are matters of values at least as much as matters of knowledge and it is all too easy to underestimate otherwise worthwhile contributions to a discussion in either field simply because we disagree with them. It would be sensible, I believe, to consider debating your convictions with some of these people. As your experience testifies, this community proves to be an exceptionally fertile soil for disagreements when discussions involve opinions of your own as well as what is accepted by them as commonsense. There is thus at least the potential for improvement in such an enterprise because, as I said, you disagree with so much of what they generally agree upon that you will be forced times a many to defend your convictions.

So, as a first suggestion, I would go with an intellectual confrontation. Not as a means to be disrespectful, but as a means to genuinely inquire about different ideas.

NO
Are people all stupid ?

IF....they want to....they will figure it out

Necessity is the best teacher

Maybe want you need to do is show/coach /demonstrate to them it is NECESSARY to use the tool

And then we have .....(would a different tool suit them better)......the agenda of
FORCEING them to use the tool we want them to use......because it is EASIER for the teacher