Lessons From Debating

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What lessons or skills have you learnt from debating?

admin: Also, really cool to see the growth of the debating circuit in Tunisia! Good on Tunisia for fostering critical, free dialogue!

admin: What lessons or skills have you learnt from debating?
That debating is a terrible way to discuss important issues.

Bi0Hazard: Care to elaborate on that?

admin: Debating is about pushing conflicting views on positions and trying to take down the opposition. There is no "considering" the other side, it is do what you can to perform best.

Bi0Hazard: I think one of the skills of debating is listening to alternative points of view and not necessarily arguing what you personally believe.

admin: That still supports what I am saying.

Bi0Hazard: Isn't that a form of consideration?

admin: Not in debating format.

Bi0Hazard: Personally I'd disagree. I think having to argue things from points of view I strongly disagree with, in teams with highly divergent views, has opened me up to both being less judgemental and more open to considering alternative viewpoints. In the debate itself, being able to listen and accurately understand the opposing argument is a critical and foundational skill to refuting an argument. So I think it's a good way to discuss issues, because it means all sides have a more holistic picture of the issue.

admin: There are alternatives that do not require doing what you can to attack the other side (remember, you cannot admit your entire case is wrong in a debate). It doesn't matter if you truly believe in the topic, your goal is refutation.
In the debate itself, being able to listen and accurately understand the opposing argument is a critical and foundational skill to refuting an argument.
Sometimes, discussing issues isn't about attempting to refute an argument, and I would rather leave that way of it.

Bi0Hazard: That depends if your intention is to find the "truth" of the issue, vs see the issue in a new way. I don't believe in truth so maybe that's the crux of the issue.

admin: I don't believe in truth so maybe that's the crux of the issue.
No objective truths?

Bi0Hazard: Right. So like on a debate about gay marriage I don't think one side is right or the other wrong. In a debate you have to consider both sides.

admin: Which is exactly what debating is, defending your side at all costs (even if you don't necessarily accept it personally yourself).

Defending your side well, particularly when you disagree with it, involves heavily researching both sides, which makes you more informed. I have learned a tiny bit by debating, .

admin: I don't believe in truth
Is that true?

Krazy: To me, yes. To you, that's your call.

admin: All truth is relative.

admin: You sound like a mentally unstable person wearing a straightjacket in a white padded room.