Pete's not silly, he's what Eric Hoffer called a "True Believer"-he believes that he has a special unerring truth that you do not. You can't reach him because he believes that he and his cohorts are absolutely right, and you and I, and Steve and everyone that doesn't agree with him 100% is wrong.

He isn't different from the old hardline Communists or the BNP, or the old American John Birchers or the new Tea Baggers, or a hundred other groups of political and religious extremists--he is far from the most eloquent spokesman for his cause, but he is unbending, unyielding, unreasoned, and unreasonable.

People like him seem silly and naive in present circumstances, but when circumstances change, they can be a lot less harmless.