Debate tips.

Author: 7000series

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7000series
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I do want to improve.
FishChaser
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@7000series
1: Never try to be right, instead think "what are the majority of idiot voters likely to agree with".

2: Make friends with everyone, so that everyone will be biased in your favor. Pick a lot of debates with the people everyone hates.

3: Instead of debating honestly, make sure the BOP is rigged in your favor so that you can talk out of your ass and be right by default while the opponent has to go out of their way to prove their points. As long as the audience thinks your opponent has BOP you can make claim after claim without having to support it.

4: Debate as dishonestly as possible, rely on technicalities and spam sources that you misrepresent in ways that help your points but always be very polite and formal about it. As long as you act polite and formal you can be as dishonest as you want and never lose conduct. Just don't make it too obvious, make it something that an idiot would be fooled by and a biased person could justify pretending is valid.

5: Make sure the opponent is on the defensive as much as possible. This is especially helpful if they have the BOP. You can manipulate them into letting you derail the debate and talk about things that don't directly address their BOP.
RationalMadman
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@7000series
You need to be very clear on which of the 4 aims your debating has:

  1. Convincing someone to think something.
  2. Arguing against someone you don't care about convincing while intending to persuade onlookers or have many cheer you on even if they already believed it.
  3. Ready to play student and merely ask the right things to say the right things to get a reaction that leads the other to argue back hard and you learn from it.
  4. Bonding with a relative, neighbour or friend who otherwise appears low-to-medium IQ and dull to you, trying to light a fire and get a stimulating conversation going with nothing better to do.
In my life, it's helped me a lot to separate those 4 entirely from each other and realise which of the 4 is my core aim during a debate. This helps center me, calm me and structure my frame of mind not just arguments to fit the encounter and know when to call it quits if need be as taking it further won't better the aim.

You probably asked only for aim 2 of those 4, regarding site debates here, right? FishChaser is slightly onto something but exaggerates things and is just complaining.

If you truly want to master aim 2, I can tutor you but prove you are serious and worthy of it. I wanted to teach someone before but only Benjamin accepted and quit after lesson 1. He was already ahead of the curve anyway so it wasn't ideal for either of us.
Best.Korea
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@FishChaser
Those are good tips.
WyIted
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@7000series
So you have a 5000 character debate and put the following argument to defend your position.

There are 2 million Ukrainian troops as of now.
18 million more troops would be the final nail in the coffin for Putin.

3 million troops are currently part of the US military.
15 million civilians are registered with the Selective Service.
Drafting and deploying everyone in the Selective Service would flatten Russia.

The US should bring the draft back.
1. That is less than 5k characters I believe so you had room for another argument at the very least. So you would force your opponent to make more rebuttals. 

2. Your argument hashidden premises that you haven't defended. For example a hidden premise is that the Nited states committing troops to help the Ukraine win would be worth it . Another hidden premise is that the United States would need more troops than they currently have to win the war. Is 18 million needed? Why? Why wouldn't 5 million be enough? So you need to defend these hidden premises. 

3. No citations. Give a citation of one of the publicly known war games the United States has held where if they help Ukraine they win with little repercussions.  Give a citation that we lack adequate amounts of troops for a major war. 

4. Anticipate your opponents arguments. For example he likely isn't going to make a pragmatic argument because pragmatism would demand a draft. He's likely to oppose a draft in the name of it imposing on freedom sounding this is his likely argument maybe make an additional argument where you show how the ability to draft protects freedom and democratic values. 

I would say redo the debate and go through that checklist and once everything is checked off, you will have a better argument
Best.Korea
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Also learn about gish gallop.
7000series
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Thank you wylted

JoeBob
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@7000series
This seems rigged against me
7000series
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@JoeBob
What does?
JoeBob
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@7000series
Rigged is a bad word. But it was about you getting advice. So I decided to take inspiration and ask people as well what I could do