At High School Debates, Debate Is No Longer Allowed
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"Debate" hasn't existed in at least a decade, if not longer. Modern debate consists of two people shitting out as many bad yet short arguments as possible in hopes that they talked faster than the other guy. That's it. No actual conversation is had, just metagaming the points system.
I think the magic word is 'can', not that it's likely.
But it can't happen because the internet has divided people into those who research and those who repeat.
So any actual debate is now between an informed, rational side and an ignorant irrational one, for example is mainstream media trustworthy, whereas classically the debate was over which side had a better argument not which had one at all.
I liked it when Gavin McInnes debated Destiny.
Gavin's main argument was that Destiny was a cuck.
It's actually unrelated to that. Spreading aka gish gallop is just the dominant strategy in the main competitive debate ruleset. If your opponent doesn't rebut a point you make, you win that point. So, just speak as quickly as possible and make hundreds of bunk points so your opponent can't rebut them all.
Far worse than that. Spreading involves speaking more quickly than most intelligent people can even interpret as language. Destiny at least enunciates enough to have his words understood.
Sure, but this seems like a clear escalation of that problem.