I never paid much attention to his debates, but from what little snippets I’ve seen, along with the “Prove Me Wrong” schtick seems to indicate he already decided he was right and others were wrong.
There’s plenty of rhetoric and memes already, I’d like to avoid more rhetoric and memes, and I ask this question with genuine curiosity and earnest desire for learning and understanding.
That’s kind of a big part of debates, didn’t you do them in school?
You can change opinions over time but you’d lose a debate if you said the other side was right in the middle of it.
I think that’s a problem with debating classes in the US where people lost sight on why debates are useful in the first place.
It should be an exchange of ideas and views, an opportunity to learn, not a training in ways to just yell over your opponent so that then you can just claim you won something. Then again, writing this “out loud” makes me realize that that is the American way, no?
May e that’s where a lot of gains can be made for the next generation. Teach them how to debate with reason AND LISTEN TO YOUR OPPONENT.For fucking once, actually listen, and try to understand, and not stick with your guns even though you’re obviously in the wrong
I thought that’s what these “change my mind booths” were for. Highlighting the poor standard of debating shown extensively by the late internet celebrity. He was also a honey pot for online trolling at the expense of a poorly thought out statement or just too much raw emotion. From what I seen the whole set up was triggering but a choice and seemed to cover all health and safety issues at each campus.
Listening is key . Context is everything.
Debate isn’t to convince the debaters, it’s to convince the audience.
Being able to select what the audience sees is what makes it anti-education.
This is the root of the problem, isn’t it? When someone proves you wrong, and you persist despite evidence to the contrary, that’s pretty stupid, right? This high school debate sophistry that Kirk and his contemporaries engage in isn’t a good faith discussion and most of his audience isn’t equipped with the critical thinking skills to understand that.
This is the biggest crux. I found people also don’t realize that clips are either staged or handpicked.
The people asking questions are often fans lobbing questions they know fit the narrative. Like the tiktoker who streamed immediately and apparently stole merch from the booth: they were a fan and in line.
Yes, I suppose that was poorly-worded.