A Serious Debate

Hi Everyone! I've been busy with school and writing some things; but I finally came up with a good Idea to discuss: or rather

DM is one of my favorite places to go on IF (well, to be honest, I just come here of primarily DEK forum- that's about it) and I love to have a great conversation or debate. What we have here is a lot more free-form, and singular- we express our opinions and believes, and try to point out fallacies in other's.

BUT when you took a debate class in school, or where on a team in school (like I was) choosing the side you WANT/SUPPORT was a luxury and seldom an option: if ever. Meaning you DON'T get to advocate what you WANT, THINK or BELIEVE. In fact, in order to be a great debater, sometimes you have to articulate and defend something you don't support, and be able to make it believable. Live debating is as much about facts as it is about ARTICULATION of facts.

So, the question is, are you guys willing to give up your side, in order to be lumped and debate on a single topic- the side ASSIGNED to you, and make it convincing?

Can you debate something you don't believe in? Are you willing to try? Because what I want to do is a little unconventional from what we're used to. You don't choose your side, it's given to you: it's difficult, but who said everything has to be easy around here.😉

We won't be debating the traditional topics about: Love, sex, abortion, same sex-marriage etc. In fact, I don't want anything that is on the top ten most debatable subjects list. Those are redundant, we've all heard of them and frankly we've been there, read, typed and done that.

These topics and understanding there various sides will take effort, learning about the nation it's coming from, background info and developing an analysis. In most cases many of you won't even know the situation was occurring. It's a learning process and most of all fun.

STRUCTURE:

1. Volunteer: tell me if you're willing to give it a try, and I'll sign you up.
2. It is a MONTHLY thing. Two teams of 5 debate. Each month on an assigned topic.
3. The teams are randomly selected, and the sides are also given randomly.
4. The topic may or may not be international- I give you the general idea, and two perspectives, and links to find information for some ground work.
5. In the end, two teams battle it out with their points and perspectives (LIVE) for 24 hours (your team members can alternate ) after the 3 week duration of research and general internal discussion and finally, the public in the end can rank who they believed articulated their points, made a valid argument and were able to convince them that there point is "correct" and why.

It's different from what we're used to, and definatly a challenge- team work, and some effort is involved. But overall it's a learning experience for Everyone: the participants and the readers.

Anyone want to give it a try? 😊

This is a nice idea. Unfortunately, DM is not a very busy forum and it will be difficult to get enough participants. Perhaps you can talk to the mods and plan something for when DM goes through its busy spurts. Or maybe talk to the mods/crazy creatives and see if something similar can be held on a global IF level.