I really hate US “debate” culture. It lends itself to “bothsideism,” “whataboutism,” and aimless countering sans any real thought or understanding. It legitimises brazen positions that just shouldn’t exist (fascism, climate denialism, etc etc), and contributes to

“team” mentalities (without thought) when it comes to politics and economics.

The whole notion of “debate” in the US is to functionally confuse people and upkeep however they’ve been propagandised— comfortably helping the status quo.

And because “debate” here marks any position as valid — no matter how outrageous— people can always turn around and scream “unity” for the sake of said maintenance (of social, economic, or political relationships)

Functionally “debate” here also doesn’t achieve anything because the end goal of debate is never decisive in an avenue/arena towards progress. It’s just that debate can mean and include anything under the sun. It’s an allowance of everything, so debate has just come to mean unity https://twitter.com/tamanishajohn/status/1309249584644919296