People who don't understand debate is a game may have a polite conversation, but they probably won't have an excellent debate.
The key to debate is that there IS truth. We don't all get equal wins on participation. Total equality on that front is a fairy tale. Some statements are true. Some are partially true. Some are false. No amount of politeness or feminism will ever reverse that.
You can win or lose in a debate. It isn't all just sharing and respect. That's discussion. Many would call it debate, and that's fine, words are malleable and have multiple definitions anyway, but it is not debate by the definition I'm using here - which equates debate with dialectic.
If you want to dig for the real truth and establish that it's the real truth fair and square, you need dialectic, not just sharing and politeness.
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(That means that when some people say a thing, it will be a win for them, because it actually is true, and when other people say a different thing, it will be a loss for them, because it actually is not true. We can't have a proper debate - a dialectic - without facing this head on.)
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The idea that a debate has no winners and no losers is mythology. There is an outside world. Reluctance to accept this is a problem.
I'm very much a feminist, but I'm not a solipsist. "Your truth" is not necessarily an accurate statement. However you feel objectively IS how you feel, but we knew that already - that's a tautology.
However anyone feels IS how that person feels. Big whoop. Not a very interesting observation, really, in my world. (We can say it once and leave it at that. Important, but not necessary to keep reiterating as if it were brand new.)
I want to know what's actually goddamn true, thank you very much.
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Modern cynicism toward objectivity is frankly backwards.
The moment you decide there is no objectivity anyway, you've fucking given up, and no wonder your views start to disconnect from reality.
Finding and validating the truth can be very, very hard work. People who think there isn't any truth? (Or everyone has their own personal truth, and it's all totally democratically determined like that?) Well why the hell would they bother with all that work?
This is not actually a rhetorical question. It's a gaping hole in public consciousness.
