I know there's a lot of good example of powerful and persuasive speeches ("I have a dream", "four score and seven years ago", "we will fight on...", etc.) but it's surprisingly difficult to find very top level debates to study on. Other than Jordan Peterson, I don't really know any other famous debaters to learn from. Any suggestions?
what are some examples of top level debates?
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@Danielle
@whiteflame
@MisterChris
@FourTrouble
Got any good examples? (Would you consider Raisor/Bluesteel on Jordan Peterson level, or is it hard to apply online to real life debates?)
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@gugigor
William Lane Craig is talented. Many dislike the guy, but he's undeniably a fantastic debater.
Same deal with Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson. Those that say these people can't debate well are in denial.
I'll have to think on it a bit to choose someone I truly think is "top level" though...
Along the lines of Coal's suggestion, many atheist and antitheist debaters (as well as some of their opponents) have produced some of the world's best 1v1 debates.
Richard Dawkins is my absolute favourite but his best debate speeches have been solo stuff where he was basically persuading the audience or interviewer rather than 1v1 debating.
Christopher Hitchens was not the 'best' debater in raw logic, his strength was rhetoric and he picked strong Theist opponents to hash it out with, he never picked a simple weakling opponent to steamroll a debate with. Search Hitchens debates for many fantastic listens.
When it comes to true 1v1 debating, the UK has produced some of the world's best. Hitchens became an American citizen towards the end of his life, however. He wouldn't want me to say RIP as he firmly abhors/abhorred the concept of a soul.
Another fantastic UK debater is Stephen Fry.
What does WAIFU mean?
WAIFU is a term for a fictional character, usually in anime or related media, that someone has great, and sometimes romantic, affection for.
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@oromagi
you realise this thread is what it is right?
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@gugigor
I would disagree that Shaprio is good at debating, he's good at cutting off mikes of college students that don't have 5 years of media training, that's not really debating - that's called selective listening. He's good at talking, that's what I'll give the guy - that he's really good at talking for long periods of time, that's it. Sam Harris is probably one of the stronger logic debaters, Jorden Peterson is... he's good at rhetoric, same with Christopher Hitchens, I think Matt Dillahunty is really good at debating - though obviously, that doesn't always translate to his show - his debates are - I think - better than a lot of even top debaters. Alex J. O'Connor or cosmicskeptic, is really good for his age, and have gone a round with William Lane Craig and some other debates with a lot of success, I think he's top level too.
Hitchens went head to head with Dr. Craig in a debate.
@weakeredge
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@gugigor
I know there's a lot of good example of powerful and persuasive speeches ("I have a dream", "four score and seven years ago", "we will fight on...", etc.) but it's surprisingly difficult to find very top level debates to study on. Other than Jordan Peterson, I don't really know any other famous debaters to learn from. Any suggestions?
Jordan Peterson is good no doubt, but he was completely dismantled by Sam Harris in their live debate at Vancouver. Overall, he's convincing, but some of his religious archetype stuff doesn't have a strong backbone. But against the average SJW, gender pay gap believing feminist, he claps, as is evident in his Cathy Newman interaction.
The cosmicskeptic is good but that may be because he mostly makes videos, meaning that he can have all the time in the world he needs to make a strong argument, unlike Shapiro who just steps up's and bats everyone down spontaneously.
Sam Harris is probably the strongest debater there is around, currently.
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@Bones
Um... you do realize that Alex does live debates right? Have you actually researched the guy? He has a podcast and has went to several other people's show for structured and unstructured debates all the time - I'm not talking about his arguments in videos.
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@Bones
And no - as I said - he's good at cutting off mikes of college students - that's about it.
I mean, any closer examination of his arguments, and well... the holes are gaping... like his response to climate change - which was people should just sell their houses if the water level increases. If you can't tell why that argument isn't good... well.... I see why you like Shapiro.
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@Theweakeredge
I kind of agree, I feel like Oromagi would be one of his most hated college students to debate. Because Oromagi has a lot of common sense and would be able to succinctly point out glaring problems in Ben's arguments.
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@gugigor
Did you check any of our suggestions out? Any feedback?
15 days later
The TOC is the highest realm of american formal debate