A list of the greatest debates mega thread.

[Danioover9000]

   Feel free to share yours, and your thoughts on why. I think this one by Destiny is great, as it shows so many rhetorical tricks and mental stamina to keep on debating like this:

 

[trenton]

I would like to see more public debates on the effectiveness of debates when getting to the truth. It would be more meta to start debating debating.

First of all, in debates people often resort to dishonest tactics in order to win. This could be gish galloping, cherry picking, and so on. This results in constant doubts about your intentions and your opponent's intentions as soon as you start to disagree.

You can take the presidential debates for example. Most people already knew who they would vote for and only six percent of the population was tuning in because they weren't sure. This is evidence that debates are not about truth, they are about slamming your opponent and looking superior.

I used to watch right wing hosts because they were good at winning debates. I stopped watching when I realized that they won through deception. Debates are about convincing people of your viewpoints and to hold your beliefs. I started distinguishing between belief and truth when I became more skeptical of debates.

You can use legal debates in a court. It is not about what is legal, it is about who can present the most convincing legal arguments. You can see this in poor people who can't afford a lawyer and end up losing because a defense attorney does not have as much time to prepare arguments for you. Again this is about winning, not truth.

How would society be if in a presidential debate the sides were arguing about how untruthful and misleading political debates often are? Leo has a video about this on his blog. Conscious people don't like debating because it's an ego game.

[Raze]