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Does this forum have formal debates on political issues?


PresidentEden
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Was asking because I recently stumbled upon the Fire Emblem Debates subforum and FE9 Debate Tournament; it got me thinking that a similar idea could work on this subforum if anyone were interested. Have they occurred before?

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I think that may cause one or two many flame wars. A large number of us are from all sorts of countries, so some people may be left out.

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Philosophical discussions transcend political boundaries and, when structured in a formal tournament style, tend to be productive and even enlightening. I don't really see the issue on those grounds. Discussing, say, the the failure of the US drug war would be imprudent given the international nature of the forum, but discussing the role of a state in regulating what individuals are allowed to consume would not.

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Given people already make spectacles of their opinions once in a while about all manner of topics, both inside serious discussion and out, and that the point of a debate tournament as I know it is to see how well somebody argues the side they're given (which can even be a side with which they don't personally agree), rather than to actually be a forum in which to share (or push) personal opinions, to my knowledge the only pertinent question in whether to try to start one (or a subsection dedicated to what I guess would amount to exhibition debates like, as was mentioned, the FE sections have) would be in how much interest there'd be. So the whole concept kind of preempts flaming, aside from cases where there's popular disagreement with the ruling of the judges on a particular debate's winner or something.

Going back to your original question, on the matter of interest, I dunno, actually. Can I get a show of hands how many FE debaters joined (or are in) debate club in high school/college?

Somehow SF's image in my mind is kind of a conflict-averse one, and I'm imagining that it may not be within most people's comfort zone, but then again not only could I be projecting and/or totally wrong on that one, I imagine you wouldn't even necessarily need "most" of SF joining in to get an active enough section. So. Good question <_>

Personal reaction here, I fall kind of on the "I can imagine being interested in reading the stuff discussed" camp, at least, but I've usually not been much for formal debates or contests in general myself. At least as of yet. /wobble wobble

So. Help me (us?) out here SF

Edited by Rehab
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Hell, if people are willing to do formal debates over whether video game character A is slightly worse than video game character B, I can totally see formal debates on other topics happening.

Edited by Constable Reggie
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i've never participated in any formal debate, but it's something i definitely would look into. at the very least i would actively read the debates, since i kind of like the whole battle of ideas aspect of it. and i can see myself participating in debates once i'm familiar with the whole formal debate process, too.

all i can say, arguing is fun, especially when everyone involved has an open mind to actually not devolve into raging demon spawn when things aren't going their way. i think such debates would help with that.

Edited by Liz
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The idea I had in mind was to brainstorm a series of topics that fundamentally were subjective enough to debate, then allow people who were on opposite sides to pair up and debate under some specified format. If anyone reading has ever participated in Lincoln-Douglas style debate, a more relaxed version of that concept was what I had in mind.

LD, fundamentally, involves the two debaters choosing an abstract concept called a value that the debater holds as supreme and a value criterion which ties that value concretely to the topic at hand. It's broken into separate rounds which restrict what the debaters are allowed to do; I wouldn't impose that much, but the notion of arguing from an overarching value to a specific policy conclusion is appealing to me, because it creates a two-fold debate: on the worth of the competing values themselves, and on their applicability to the issue at hand. You're required to tie your position to a defensible value, and you're also required to show why your values are relevant, informative and explanatory within the confines of reality.

The first step would seem to be creating a good list of topics. Getting down the structure of the debate would seem a logical first step, but I'd like to base the structure off of the anticipated topics so as to make the structure as palatable to the topics as possible, instead of shoehorning the topics to fit a predetermined structure.

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  • 2 weeks later...

1. It's a video game forums, so I'd rather talk about video games.

2. Go ahead if you wanna talk about those things, but they tend to obliterate forums, so I'd give you a word of fair warning before the mods and/or the entire forum turns on itself.

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I've been here awhile and I don't think a formal debate has ever occurred. Start a topic (as I don't think another subforum is all that necessary), and see who bites. I'd certainly be willing to read over some formal debates (don't think I'll have the time to participate, though).

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the majority of SF's userbase is not mature or invested enough to have an informed political opinion

I agree with dondon here. The vast majority of SF is not nearly mature enough to participate.

However, there are a good 20 or so users (including myself) that hang around Serious Discussion and would actually be able to contribute. If you're willing to loght the match, the worst that would happen is that Tangerine or Eclipse would close down the topics due to too much flaming and that would be the end of that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

1. It's a video game forums, so I'd rather talk about video games.

2. Go ahead if you wanna talk about those things, but they tend to obliterate forums, so I'd give you a word of fair warning before the mods and/or the entire forum turns on itself.

you could just stick a political forum as a subforum of Serious Discussion (or even a single megathread about politics)

it's not like it causes other forums to collapse

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I've been wanted to do something along the lines of a debate with left of SF v. the right of SF (Topic: TBA). The thing is, I don't know how many people would consider themselves left of the spectrum.

Hell, I've generally felt an apolitical vibe from SF. Well, besides a few select members, anyways.

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I've been wanted to do something along the lines of a debate with left of SF v. the right of SF (Topic: TBA). The thing is, I don't know how many people would consider themselves left of the spectrum.

Hell, I've generally felt an apolitical vibe from SF. Well, besides a few select members, anyways.

I am willing to bet a majority of the people on this forum are left-leaning to a fair degree. I haven't seen a wide amount of the irritating figures that seem to infest forums (heavy-slanting anarcho-capitalists and libertarians, etc.), but then there haven't been any topics raised on that regard. So who knows, maybe I secretly hate some of you and just don't know it yet.

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I am willing to bet a majority of the people on this forum are left-leaning to a fair degree. I haven't seen a wide amount of the irritating figures that seem to infest forums (heavy-slanting anarcho-capitalists and libertarians, etc.), but then there haven't been any topics raised on that regard. So who knows, maybe I secretly hate some of you and just don't know it yet.

A bit unrelated, but an interesting topic for serious discussion maybe just asking people where they stand politically, socially and ergonomically. If they don't know, we can tell them what they are help them find out where they stand.

I'm not a Tearing Saga Shill bent on destroying this community by injecting politics into a generally apolitical forum

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A bit unrelated, but an interesting topic for serious discussion maybe just asking people where they stand politically, socially and ergonomically. If they don't know, we can tell them what they are help them find out where they stand.

I'm not a Tearing Saga Shill bent on destroying this community by injecting politics into a generally apolitical forum

If I remember correctly there was one in the General forum some time ago. It was a bit boring though because everyone answered with the "I hate politics so I'm unidentifiable," as memory recalls.

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If I remember correctly there was one in the General forum some time ago. It was a bit boring though because everyone answered with the "I hate politics so I'm unidentifiable," as memory recalls.

Thus the fun in politicizing folk.

>I hate politks!1!!

>>Why

>(American) Democratic and Repub are shit!

>Doesn't matter to me! As long as I get to have muh freedoms!

>>But X,Y and Z!

>Oh shit!

Random SF user is now a card carrying member of the Crimea's People Army.

Yes, this is how things play out in my head. With greentext

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Depends on what you mean by that. The traditional left feeling dissatisfied at a perceived conservative swing by the major, supposedly 'centre-left' party is pretty relevant in Australia, presumably the UK and probably the States.

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Depends on what you mean by that. The traditional left feeling dissatisfied at a perceived conservative swing by the major, supposedly 'centre-left' party is pretty relevant in Australia, presumably the UK and probably the States.

all 3, yes

but I'm talking about people who clearly don't care at all and look down on those who do

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