Cognitive dissonance -- the mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information. People want to believe the "facts" that match their world view, I believe.

I get frustrated to no end when I hear people freaking out about how words are used...

Oh no wait, I don't. I don't care how people use words, because I understand that we all have slightly different conceptions of them, and language is fluid anyway--and I have confidence in my ability to discern context and ask for clarification if necessary.

I'm too much of a poet at heart to want to nail words down to one concrete definition. But that's just me. Nobody else has to feel that way.

Understanding how different people use words helps me understand a bit about how they think.

Amen! I hate it when I hear people claim they have their own "truth".

That is what cracks me up about the various brands of religion, each one claims to have the 'truth', the one truth. eyeroll

My skin crawls a bit, too, when I hear something about "personal truth." It's not so much that one person can't have their own perspective and experiences, and I'm fine with it even if they think of that as "truth," but what I see so often is that people confuse the meanings and will start denying science and reasoned arguments and say, "Well, this is my truth."

Agreed. Also the obvious theists posing as agnostics, spouting manipulative illogical nonsense in such a way that it seems plausible if you just skim it.

The statement is indeed prosperous. I respond simply by saying something to the affect of, "If I say that Scooby Doo is an actual real, living cartoon dog. It may not be true for you but it is not true for you." This does in no way "make" Scooby Doo real.
There is a big difference between what one wishes to be true and what is factual. So it's true for me and not for you is simply an attempt to shift the burden.
If it is true for you than you must provide empirical evidence for me to believe it also. Just as I must provide evidence that Scooby Doo is real for you to believe me.

That’s got to be the most frustrating thing to deal with in arguments, when people refuse to take in new knowledge and change their mental schematics accordingly.

And opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one