Thread: What are your aims in debate?

What are your aims in debate? What do you seek to accomplish when you debate someone here or in real life? Why those aims and not others?

Originally Posted by ThePlayDrive

What are your aims in debate? What do you seek to accomplish when you debate someone here or in real life? Why those aims and not others?

Learn something.
Challenge my own beliefs.
Those are why I enjoy debating on here.

The least important thing to me is to change the mind of another person.

Depends on the thread or topic.

Sometimes I post to provide more information.
Sometimes I provide a new insight (hopefully) or new information (hopefully) that might further somebody else's opinion (either in line with or contradictory to mine).
Somtimes I post to entertain (hopefully).
Sometimes I post because I agree/disagree and want to mention something that hasn't already been mentioned.

I don't ever post with the intent to change an opinion. I may do that on rare occasion, but I don't expect to.

In arguing your points, you learn to make them stronger and you can scrutinize them for inconsistencies; in such a manner, through self-reflection, sure, you can become a more logical person and a better critical thinker.

Educating others and changing their mind when you can is a good goal; often, exposing their ignorance of fact goes hand in hand with that.

all of the above + fun

sharing my thoughts on the issues we are discussing and trying to learn something from the others

Educate. Try to bring to the forefront the issues the MSM try hard to ignore/censor. Break thru the Imagery that the "Mighty Wurlitzer" works hard to craft and disseminate. Iconoclast, just like it says.

I love it when a pole actually has the right answer.

By calling out ignorance and hypocrisy you can deflate the ego and momentum of the far-right and far-left.

Obama is a moderate on economic issues and a conservative on foreign policy. Ignorant posters assume because I support him I'm a socialist/leftist--that's their lack of education and understanding of political terms.

Originally Posted by ThePlayDrive

What are your aims in debate? What do you seek to accomplish when you debate someone here or in real life? Why those aims and not others?

Learn more and engage is discussion.

I enjoy challenging myself and my own skills, researching issues. The intellectual chess game that occasionally transpires is a great deal of fun. Being right or wrong is not a draw for me, it is the preparation and the "battle" itself.