My tweets

[athelind]

• Wed, 03:13: http://t.co/mQZlrkUWVv - Whoa.
• Wed, 09:17: Debate teams are a plague on civilized conversation: their veterans keep trying to WIN rather than CONVERSE.
• Wed, 09:23: "Teaching a pig to sing just wastes your time and annoys the pig."

Comments

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Definitely agree re: debate team veterans. Logic class veterans aren't much better, but at least they usually snap out of their acquired conversational dysfunction one to six months after the class ends; debate team veterans can be affected for years.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

The problem is that high school debate takes impressionable minds and convinces them that an adversarial model is the only legitimate form of discourse. Every conversation becomes a battle or a competition or a game to win.

When you encounter a Master Debater, the best thing to do is to back away slowly, close the door, and let them play with themselves.