de·bate
noun
- a discussion, as of a public question in an assembly, involving opposing viewpoints: a debate in the Senate on farm price supports.
- a formal contest in which the affirmative and negative sides of a proposition are advocated by opposing speakers.
- deliberation; consideration.
- Archaic. strife; contention.
verb (used without object)
- to engage in argument or discussion, as in a legislative or public assembly: When we left, the men were still debating.
- to participate in a formal debate.
- to deliberate; consider: I debated with myself whether to tell them the truth or not.
- Obsolete . to fight; quarrel.
That’s the text book definition, the one they want us to believe they understand, and practice. We, the uneducated masses, with three hours to waste on a Monday evening, know better, however.
debate
Today, a form of intellectual self-masturbation in which one attempts to scale an ivory tower in the shortest time possible. Policy debate was founded in 1957 in an attempt to disguise the throes of the real world with dignified, "intellectual" switch-side arguments. The framers intended it to allow young people to become more active in the world around them and encourage them to do something to help the ailing world. Instead, debaters made the activity into a competition of who could spew the most statistics, impacts, horribly damnable effects/results, screaming evidence at cutthroat speed, and modern debate sprouted as a result. Debate resides close to the top of the proverbial "ivory tower", as the real world gets translated into evidence and impacts, statistics and "strats" to win tournaments. Those who participate for the fun of it are exempt from this definition; it is only applicable to debate when it is applied as a critical theory that can "benefit the world".
Debate, when converted into a social theory, becomes a laughable mockery of the suffering of the world.
(from The Urban Dictionary)
Wake me up when one of those geniuses actually says something that could possibly change the taste of my tea tomorrow morning.
Dida for president!
