kropotkhristian:

Talking to people with abhorrent views can be a step in changing their minds. I believe this. I do this often and am willing to do this. I will have a personal, non-public conversation with just about anybody. I’m not in an echo chamber whatsoever.

But public debate is different, and for some reason, the “reason and logic” caucus of mostly white dudes can’t figure out that public debate actually has pretty much nothing to do with “reason and logic.” It is a performance of rhetoric. Scientists and scholars don’t have a public debate with people they disagree with to push their discoveries - they publish them in peer-reviewed journals, away from the public eye, away from rhetorical and emotional strategies. 

I happen to be pretty good at public debate, by mere happenstance, but I know a lot of absolutely brilliant people who are not. Those people aren’t afraid of you or your bullshit when they refuse to publicly debate you - they just recognize their own weakness in a particular setting and aren’t going to be exploited for it for no reason.

Public debate has nothing to do with truth. It never has and it never will. It has everything to do with performance, rhetoric, emotional appeals, cognitive biases, and self-congratulatory victory laps. I really wish people could figure this out.

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    Forgive me if this has already been suggested, but I think it’s possible that the “reason and logic” crowd have figured...

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