[lbo-talk] Chomsky: Dershowitz is a remarkable liar and slanderer, an extreme opponent of elementary civil rights

[kevin island]

There are debate clubs that won't tell you which position you'll be defending until the last minute. Good practice, I suppose, for young people who think they might like to be lawyers. But debate clubs are carefully controlled environments. You'll be penalized if you resort to fallacious logic or unfair tactics, things such as ad hominum attacks. 

   

  In this way, a debate club can seem unreal. In real life, you can benefit from ignoring what's fair and what isn't. If you thought your audience would respond to, say, an appeal to authority, you'd be tempted to go for it. You might even go further and try to compose the audience (jury) with people (jurors) likely to be receptive to the kinds of (faulty) arguments you have in mind.

   

  Inside a courtroom, you may not have much choice over the judge. Any attempt to intimidate the judge could backfire. But in the court of public opinion, you may have ample opportunity to "work the refs." That goes beyond cynical. 

  

Andy F <andy274 at gmail.com> wrote:

  
What remember of the whole "debate team" format was that you were
supposed to take a position and defend it by whatever (verbal) means
necessary, regardless of what you thought of its merits. Do I have
this wrong? It seemed profoundly cynical.

-- 
Andy
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