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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3057 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 24, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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No, it’s totally a spectator sport. And it’s used as such—for convincing viewers that one position is reasonable. Or that one team has the better charisma. It’s about demonstrating that real, functional people will stake their status on a position.

The same is true for an exchange of effortposts. Actually changing your interlocutor’s mind is rare, and usually depends on axioms. I’m not going to convince a theist that God doesn’t exist. But the format is valuable because other readers get a sense for whether those axioms fit them. It’s humanizing. To reach theists (or atheists or leftists or reactionaries or…), they need to know that their opponents are real and earnest. Long form posting is one way to signal that. So are public debates.

I'm talking about stuff like presidential debates before an election, or when internet political commentators debate each other on Twitch. Their goal isn't to change each other's minds, or to humanize themselves for viewers. It's to show viewers that the other side is wrong and that they are correct, ostensibly. But verbal debate fails at that. If their self-proclaimed goal was actually just for the debaters to have an opportunity to show off how earnest they are, I wouldn't have an issue with it, but I don't debates ever call that their goal.

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