Hasan Piker
What was your initial reaction to the Steven Crowder and Sam Seder debate?
Personally, I think all of this is just bullshit. I’ve done debates on the internet, and it’s just pseudo-intellectual wrestling. It’s sport, and it’s not productive. I think it can help start a lot of people down the road of deradicalization, but what I have to recognize is that it fosters a really toxic environment. People just want to beat their opponent, so they’re not necessarily ideologically shifting anyone. Instead, the 20 percent of the audience that is maybe malleable gravitates toward whoever the top dog debater is. So it turns into team sports. It’s not necessarily grounding your ideology in materialism, and instead, it’s just basically repeating talking points from the new intellectual daddy or father figure that you appreciate or enjoy.
It’s interesting you bring that up — the concept of team sports. When I watched the “debate” last week, my mind went straight to the Gore Vidal and Bill Buckley debates in the late ’60s. It felt like a moment where culture was beginning to override ideas, largely due to television as the medium for political debate.
— source theverge.com | Jun 29, 2021