this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

That's because that's how politics works. If you can get enough people to believe that what you say is true and act on that belief, it doesn't really matter whether it's actually true or not.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's not the WHY. Debate isn't trying to be like politics, but having formalized competitive rules for arguing is pretty difficult so there are a lot of ways to game the system. It's not trying to model a broken world.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is it not? I was under the belief that official political debates have a large influence on the format and rules of these debate clubs.

If not, it shouldn't be that difficult to verify whether competitor's statements are backed by evidence, or if they're made up, or if they're really opinions disguised as facts.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What's an "official" political debate? The government runs no such thing.

Also in general, many debates on TV are jest talking, no winner is declared. It's the opposite of a competitive format.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes, fair correction. Perhaps that is a point itself, the way debates between political opponents are presented as formal and official when in fact they are entirely at the whim of the broadcaster and the politicians involved.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

And that's at least in part true, because people are taught that there's nothing true, ever.

The media also react on that. All those "debates" between candidates for example. Most politicians would have to be interrupted every five seconds, because they tell obvious lies. Instead all the commentary focuses on debate style, which is utterly useless as a metric.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Of course it does. The problem with truth is - it’s often nuanced, complex and difficult so knowing how to communicate is important

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This is only the case because we allow it as a culture. If we chose to value truth and intellectual honesty then that wouldn't be how it works