Heys terrans. (Strange salutation I'm sure, but hey, it's better than “Greetings earthscum”.) I hope this finds you well. Current events may look more like a script from a “reality” show, but here's hoping for good times anyway.
I've been digging through the ol' interwebs looking for debates. I'm trying to collect ones with lots of significant “clash”. Ones where the opponents engage each others' positions with the best of their own, hitting the big points and doing a thorough job besides. (I'm interested in ones on free-will, libertarianism, conservativism, idealism, and other subjects as well, so recommendations welcome.) In my huntings, I am reminded of a Soho forum debate on Capitalism vs Socialism, where at ten minutes into the socialist's opening, his case was entirely based on a sad anecdote, on the woes of a budding socialist in days of America-past. It would be ok as an intro, but it lasts ten minutes! (How long are these opening statements?!) I made it through the whole thing, but it wasn't easy.
I don't like that it was an emotional ploy, but it kind of begs the debate's question, too. Say he was defending some other view (call it evilism), a view that ranked high among the most dangerous yet obscure views on the ideo-market. Well, then it wouldn't seem quite as sad if, per the story, a college didn't have a whole course on evilism. It wouldn't seem bad at all if professors had to be hush hush in advocating evilism. As a story of a closeted racist in respectable society is sad because of the racism rather thatn the closet, so it would be with the closeted evilist. So, if socialism's grave severity is comparable to evilism, then his experience as a closeted one is to be comparably pitied. The maneuver's effectiveness will depend on what the audience makes of the crazy evil he was in the closet for.
It's one thing to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts and another to teach the dark arts themselves, and determining which one Socialism compares to is kind of what he debate is about. With the unsubstantial sympathy ploy, the coaxing his audience, that talk sounds like Slytherin to me.
Well, I better get. There's plenty to do over here. Thanks for your kind attention.
-Pen