I used to read stacks of political magazines in the 90s. In 2004 The New Republic and The National Review formed a joint website called Opinion Duel, in which a writer from each magazine would debate a topic. All the debates quickly degenerated into flame wars, albeit with expensive Ivy League vocabularies. Both sides twisted facts, misrepresented their opponent’s arguments, made snide remarks, and were basically jerks. They made no attempt to actually understand the other side’s point-of-view. I finally understood that public policy debates are no better than political debates. Like trolls on Usenet, both are more interested in winning the argument than in finding the right answer.
