- Joined
- Jun 28, 2013
- Messages
- 1,681
- Reaction score
- 1,219
- Location
- Rhode Island
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Independent
I've been here a while, I mostly lurk, but I occasionally come out of the shadows to post something. I came here initially because I knew how ignorant I was concerning much of politics, and it bothered me. I felt like the very definition of Low Information Voter when it came time to cast my vote, and at some point it became obvious to me how, when I did attempt any kind of political debate, I was repeating talking points, had little to back them up with, and that I had basically been raised in a moderate - left household and never bothered to think beyond what I had accepted on faith. In light of this, it's no mystery on why I view debate the way that I do.
2 Years later, I still visit DP regularly and feel like I am much more aware of the general political landscape, the positions of various persons of note, etc. I'm also much more familiar with the arguments and perspectives of the opposition, those that oppose many things which I either accepted on faith or were presented to me as common sense at a young age, and to whom I had previously done nothing more than try to find new ways to ridicule while sounding witty. Perhaps I'm getting older, but I can't help but look back and feel that my old approach was ... juvenile. My views on some things have changed. My views on other things have simply been cemented in by this additional information. I am not ashamed of either, for I seek the truth whether my initial position is true or not.
On a whim, I googled "the art of debate", a term which, in my own head, I had taken to calling it.
All top results were "How to win a debate every time" "understanding and exploiting your opponents weaknesses in debate" "This approach will help you defeat any opponent in open debate" etc etc.
And it occurred to me, maybe I'm the minority here (both in the world and on DP lol).
I see debate as, at the risk of sounding extremely corny, a quest for truth.
Most, it seems, see debate as a duel. And in this duel dishonesty, deliberate misrepresentation, fallacy, offensive/emotionally charged yet factually empty statements, and other forms of intellectual dishonesty are but tools to be shamelessly used when the need arises. The duel must be won, by whatever means necessary. It is a contest, with a winner and a loser.
Now, I don't wish to invoke a false dichotomy. This isn't black and white, but a whole spectrum of grays, where few if any fall on the far extremes of either end. But still, I can't help but see this "win by whatever means necessary" mentality in a lot of posts. When did the truth become so ... unimportant? Is this simply a case of different people having different visions of the truth? Theoretically, if both individuals are inclined towards honest debate, yet hold opposing views, they should be able to, through debate, pin point where the disagreement originates from (this does happen, although not as often as it should). It may be a case of differing definitions, or simply having different moral standards, a combination of the two or something else entirely. But in this hypothetical debate an agreement should be possible, where the debaters, understanding each others view as well as their own, can say "we see X differently, and we define Y differently, and that's why we have fundamentally different answers to the same question", shake hands and move on. But there are so many posts/threads where 1 poster runs in circles of (painfully) obviously flawed logic, exhausting one opponent after another with unsupported talking points, emotional statements that contain little or no facts, generally ignoring the logic behind the opposition, and/or deliberately spinning something so hard that it becomes difficult to see what it started off as. To debate with such is utterly unproductive in the quest for truth.
How do you see debate?
Did you come here to sharpen your dueling skills? In search of truth? To push a certain view? To channel your aggression into something that won't get you arrested?
2 Years later, I still visit DP regularly and feel like I am much more aware of the general political landscape, the positions of various persons of note, etc. I'm also much more familiar with the arguments and perspectives of the opposition, those that oppose many things which I either accepted on faith or were presented to me as common sense at a young age, and to whom I had previously done nothing more than try to find new ways to ridicule while sounding witty. Perhaps I'm getting older, but I can't help but look back and feel that my old approach was ... juvenile. My views on some things have changed. My views on other things have simply been cemented in by this additional information. I am not ashamed of either, for I seek the truth whether my initial position is true or not.
On a whim, I googled "the art of debate", a term which, in my own head, I had taken to calling it.
All top results were "How to win a debate every time" "understanding and exploiting your opponents weaknesses in debate" "This approach will help you defeat any opponent in open debate" etc etc.
And it occurred to me, maybe I'm the minority here (both in the world and on DP lol).
I see debate as, at the risk of sounding extremely corny, a quest for truth.
Most, it seems, see debate as a duel. And in this duel dishonesty, deliberate misrepresentation, fallacy, offensive/emotionally charged yet factually empty statements, and other forms of intellectual dishonesty are but tools to be shamelessly used when the need arises. The duel must be won, by whatever means necessary. It is a contest, with a winner and a loser.
Now, I don't wish to invoke a false dichotomy. This isn't black and white, but a whole spectrum of grays, where few if any fall on the far extremes of either end. But still, I can't help but see this "win by whatever means necessary" mentality in a lot of posts. When did the truth become so ... unimportant? Is this simply a case of different people having different visions of the truth? Theoretically, if both individuals are inclined towards honest debate, yet hold opposing views, they should be able to, through debate, pin point where the disagreement originates from (this does happen, although not as often as it should). It may be a case of differing definitions, or simply having different moral standards, a combination of the two or something else entirely. But in this hypothetical debate an agreement should be possible, where the debaters, understanding each others view as well as their own, can say "we see X differently, and we define Y differently, and that's why we have fundamentally different answers to the same question", shake hands and move on. But there are so many posts/threads where 1 poster runs in circles of (painfully) obviously flawed logic, exhausting one opponent after another with unsupported talking points, emotional statements that contain little or no facts, generally ignoring the logic behind the opposition, and/or deliberately spinning something so hard that it becomes difficult to see what it started off as. To debate with such is utterly unproductive in the quest for truth.
How do you see debate?
Did you come here to sharpen your dueling skills? In search of truth? To push a certain view? To channel your aggression into something that won't get you arrested?