Why Debates Fail

A critique of Lex Fridman’s Israel/Palestine Debate, and how to fix it.

I think as a society we’ve lost the plot on debating and Truth seeking in general. As I’ve written in the past ( Truth vs. truth), the pathless path to any absolute Truth is long, messy, and improbable at best. At first glance, it would seem a format that facilitates discussion or argument around a particular topic would be beneficial to the mission of seeking Truth. However, we currently exist in an information ecosystem of near infinite discussions and arguments in every format imaginable. Do you feel like we are closer to “The Truth” on anything? Or, are we in fact further from the Truth than ever before?

To be clear, I don’t think this is a “less is more” situation. I think more discussion, and more easily accessible discussion, is better. Fundamentally, however, we are wielding the tool horribly. It’s like we are trying to drive a nail with the claw side of a hammer, and all the while wondering to ourselves why it’s so damn hard to get the nail to go in without mangling the nail and everything around it. Maybe we should just turn the damn hammer around.

Also, I’m not saying current debates are useless, they simply don’t actually work to solve any particular problem or move our society forward. For instance, our recent disaster of a…