I won’t knock your desire to debate dudes on here. For myself as serious topics go, I don’t see the practicality of live debates on a message board. I mostly don’t prefer debating at all. I would rather present a counter-argument if I disagree with something posted here, not for the purpose of changing your mind but more so that I’ve added my viewpoints that I believe to be right into the mix of viewpoints presented. Others not directly involved in the exchange who are just observing could be positively affected, hopefully.
With us typing responses back and forth, there is the opportunity to see a post, go think about it and come back and take the time to formulate a reply, edit it, add to it, subtract from it, then post it. There’s a chance to exchange links and wait for the other person to read the link and then come back and discuss it. Live debate doesn’t afford that level of scrutiny.
As debate itself goes whether live or text-based, people tend to cherry-pick responses to posts and they tend to move goalposts. Folks will read a reply and see where the person they are debating proved their view to be correct. Instead of acknowledging that the other person was right, they sidestep all of that and pick out one line out of several paragraphs and only address that one line and start a new mini-argument off of that one line. That’s non-productive. On BGOL in most “debates“, people act like it takes away from their manhood to say they agree with certain points the other person made. That’s not productive either.
If you are right about something and I see that, I‘ll acknowledge it. If you show me that I was wrong on a point and I see it, there is no shame in admitting you are right. I’ll acknowledge your rightness. Since for me, I don’t view these discussions as a pissing contest, if there are areas we agree, I’ll verbalize my agreement. I’m not trying to “win” or best you or bury you, when it comes to issues of Black liberation, reparations or simply us and our families surviving in this country and this world, I want us all to win. The moment that any of us feel like we can’t learn something new or have our consciousness and knowledge base expanded is the moment we become unconscious and voluntarily ignorant.
That’s why I’m usually pretty selective when it comes to sharing my viewpoints in topics on here.
This election is an emotional issue for me. The lives of my family and me have been affected profoundly by COVID-19. I’m really trying to see a change of leadership happen as soon as possible to prevent more death,
I slipped up. You,
@VAiz4hustlaz had some views I didn’t agree with. I called you a “Judas”. That was the wrong way to enter this thread. As one who preaches against ad hominem attacks, I violated my own sermon. As a result, you and I ended up arguing about who is Black or not. A non-issue since we both are Black. We’ve agreed on and cosigned each other on a bunch of things over the years. I shouldn’t have called you that name or automatically labeled you. It would have been productive just to enter the conversation respectfully disagreeing, giving you the opportunity to respond and present my counter-argument and then dialogue with you from there.