To be in a good debate

June 10, 2023

To be in a good debate

Introduction

An opinion exactly opposing your opinion or beliefs is floating around your wall or may be any social media platforms and you are tempted to express exactly opposing views. This is generally how it starts. The original individual posting a view or opinion doesn't know your intentions, and maybe you also don’t sense what intentions your subconscious mind had poured into the words you expressed your opinion either. This is where it can go wrong. In order to avoid being in situations kind of like A discussion went wrong I thought of writing this blog. Below opinions are solely my own based on the experiences I had and I am open to hear if readers have other thoughts or opinions.

Know when it’s worth to participate in

Being tempted to express is the least important thing to decide if it's worth it to participate in the debate yet it is the foremost thing to reconsider and introspect on why you are originally tempted. Having clarity on thoughts around why you think it is important to participate in a particular debate is important. Below are some of the questions you can ask yourself before deciding on participating in any debate.

Do I have appropriate knowledge/exposure for the topic being discussed? Even If I don't have enough knowledge/exposure still do I have framed certain opinions/beliefs around this topic?

In any case if the answer is yes this becomes one of the ( but not only sufficient) reasons to participate in debate. You must be wondering why we should participate in a debate even if we don’t have knowledge/exposure. Remember the core purpose of debate is not to prove a person wrong, the purpose may be to form an opinion by gaining knowledge with the help of folks involved in the debate. So do join debates with the purpose to prove your own beliefs or opinions wrong too, you will learn so many things in this process

Is there a good facilitator part of debate?

A debate can become worse if there is no one or more facilitator of debate trying to understand both points of view (Ideally it's the responsibility of every person part of debate to have that sense, but the world is not perfect), a facilitator could be the individual itself who originally posted an opposing view. It's you to evaluate if the person who is facilitating a debate is worth a facilitator or just a person trying to prove his point.

Does it serve any good purpose?

I was initially hesitant to participate in debates because I used to think it may ruin someone's joy if your opposing views are making more sense in the topic and this wasn’t the purpose to originally express opposing views either. But when you think holistically, everyone may not know everything and if you know something which can shed more light on a topic then it serves as a very good knowledge project in itself. While the world is very much misled with a lot of opinions being portrayed as facts and a lot of wrong information to prove it. Least we can do is to shed more light on the topic. But caution here is the purpose should never be to prove an individual wrong ( whatever agenda/intentions you think they may have )

Characteristics of Good Debater

  • If you are participating in a debate the most valuable mindset you need to have is ‘I am open to alter my opinion/belief if I see enough reasoning’. The least thing you can achieve out of any debate is winning it.
  • Never ever approach debate for just sake of winning it.
  • Be open to listening to counter opinions, think about them.
  • Even if those sound foolish, give that benefit of doubt to individuals that they may not be good with words or in communication (maybe they are saying something important but they don't know how to express it) and ask for more clarification on views.
  • Don’t debate words in a nutshell. Always clarify your intent when you are asking difficult questions or being too direct ( first check what you intend yourself )

Know when to wrap up

It's always good to wrap up debate if the intent of collective learning is not getting achieved out of it. Following are few instances when you should think of wrap up.

  • Same topics are being discussed again and again without any conclusion.
  • It is becoming to personal or moving towards argument than a debate.
  • There are personal assults happeing in discussion.
  • Debating parties are not showing charachteristics of good debater.

Conclusion

Its generally tempting to participate in debate, but its equally embarassing when debate goes wrong. Hope few opinions shared here will help you to do better debates.