Learning to Debate on the Internet
Yesterday’s Dilbert strip speaks to (and often really to) those of us opining online for all to see. The Internet has brought to the field armies of fatuous arguments and inane gibberish that otherwise wouldn’t get much of a hearing beyond a three-foot radius at a bar or dinner table. However, on the other side of the binary, the Internet has given the floor to blindingly brilliant debaters who can obliterate the strongest arguments with a few wise words and phrases. I can safely say that the interlocutors I’ve cross swords with have sharpened my mind and my technique. Brandon Watson, for example, has such a logical and disciplined thought process, I’m left simmering in awe, envy, and the recognition that I really need to rethink how I got from A to B. Maybe I’m an odd doll on the shelf, but I love it when a friend or random stranger demolishes my arguments and presuppositions. Makes me a better thinker. My thanks and appreciation to everyone who comes here and shows me the errors in my methods and messages.
H/T: Alex Massie
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To the only interesting thing to say about internet debate is that it is similar to the long history of pamphleteering in many cultures. It is interesting that the situation that obtains now is NOT new or revolutionary. It was what always existed in pamphleteering cultures. The anomaly was, in retrospect, the relatively small window of time when pamphleteering went out of use because of radio and TV. In that small interval the centralization and control of opinion in the hands of the few was unprecedented. No wonder so many bad things happened in that period.
One thing that was always clear from pamphlets. They were always very discursive, polemical and leaning towards the petty and unserious. Sounds pretty similar to the internet to me.
That’s very kind, Kyle. I think people have different strengths; I tend to get very focused, which always leaves me worrying about whether I’ve tipped over from being concise and careful to being dismissive and brutal, so I always admire your ability to remain evanhanded throughout.