Debate Is Dead

I don’t debate. I seldom even bother to argue. You will always find me willing and patient to explain as best I know how what goes on inside my head. I always do what I know is required by my God, and if I can’t help you appreciate the value of that, I leave you to stew in your own juices.
Debate solves nothing. The same people who can be persuaded by debate could easily be persuaded by much lesser means. While debate in its purest form was meant to contrast ideas using facts, even in the sterile atmosphere of college debate competitions, it’s still about trickery and deceit, and the art of presentation. It was never really examining the facts, but selective use of facts to bludgeon someone else. So you can imagine my utter contempt regarding those things people advertise as “political debates” which are little more than thinly veiled hostility between persons regardless of the ideas involved.
It’s the same sort of thing when someone accuses you of racism. There is no logical defense against that; you cannot disprove the charge under any circumstances. Nor can you disprove charges of sexism or any other “-ism” these days. Such things are merely verbal bludgeons, trump cards used to avoid anything approaching an honest debate. I don’t even bother to take umbrage at such charges. All it does is prove the person making the charge is unworthy of any fair consideration. In colloquial terms, “screw `em.” Do what you know is right, and throw away any hope of placating someone like that — pearls before swine.
We could discuss social tactics, but the finesse and subtlety required is something you demonstrate, not write about. Think about the necessity of holding civility and dealing with uncivil and unreasonable people. Civility is a good in itself, and sometimes it actually does require drawing blood, but if you don’t defend it as a critical element in your existence, you’ve already lost the one battle worth fighting. Be generous, magnanimous even, but don’t be a fool.
I press my claims, but I do so first by conduct, and words come far behind. The business of changing hearts is out of my hands, and always will be. The strongest argument I have is myself.