What is ruining debates?

[normaM]

For many debating is akin to attacking their core beliefs ( no matter if there is a basis for that belief) so they go in attack or denial mode. Refusing to accept that their tenet or opinion might just might be incorrect.
So many factors go into determining a set belief it becomes near impossible to see others perspective.
We toss around the term critical thinking but don't often apply it when we form our opinion.

I'm fond of telling people their are entitled to their wrong opinion :)

One can't debate if they don't know the set rules for debating, hence it all becomes a shytshow. On the net that is displayed with typing in CAPS, or bolding. Or even worse, changing font color! lol

[daria]

Please see my signature below. Lol.

[youjustcomplain]

This, too, is flawed. If the theory is that one person has to be wrong and the other has to be right. Both could be wrong, or both could be right. It's simply not a binary issue.

If my daughter drew that shape on the ground, she wouldn't know it was a 6 or a 9. In fact, she often plays a game with me where she draws something then asks me what it looks like. Most of her little scribbles look like nothing recognizable, but some few look like they could be a letter or number.

From where I sit, I can see a 6, or 9 or I can see a large mug with an even larger handle. Nobody is right or wrong when there is no way to know either way.

[Fancy]

I think by going to the source and finding out the basic facts first always helps. Who, what, when, where, why and how are the basics in problem solving and acquiring information that should be essential in any kind of debate.
As far as the number is concerned, it could have been printed upside down.

[Poindexter]

I think for this example the lesson is both are right because the correct answer depends on perspective. If both sides were able to effectively debate by attempting to view the issue from the other's perspective, they should both reach that conclusion.

[burnedatstake]

im glad to know that i am right. and you are all wrong. and your duty is to convince me that you are right and i am wrong.

[Glacier]

Debates go sideways the moment one party or both start talking down to the other.

[Poindexter]

[d0nb]

It’s said that what you don’t know isn’t as dangerous as what you know for sure that just isn’t so.

It’s a close call. Facts have always been adjusted to suit political biases, but the practice appears to have become epidemic. The outcome is apparent in the kind of incoherent nonsense we see so much of in our schools and media.

Meaningful debate can occur when the elementary facts (foundational knowledge) are known and agreed on, but even a basic Socratic dialogue is impossible when most people can’t respond intelligently to simple questions about current events, history or philosophy.

[Queen K]

^^^ Not enough people understanding these.

[burnedatstake]

right wingers

[Snman]

right wingers

Yari Kurri, Guy Lafleur, Mike Bossy, Gordie Howe, Maurice 'Rocket" Richard.
All outstanding right wingers, each and every one of them.

[burnedatstake]

Yari Kurri, Guy Lafleur, Mike Bossy, Gordie Howe, Maurice 'Rocket" Richard.
All outstanding right wingers, each and every one of them.

gotta give that one a begrudging - touche.

[Jack DeBear]