&gt; before you&#x27;re allowed to respond to someone being wrong, you have to first be able to express their position in a way that they agree represents their view<p>While we&#x27;re at it, let&#x27;s stipulate that everyone is only allowed to be honest and logical and to base their reasoning on valid premises! :)<p>It&#x27;s a nice thought, at least at first glance, but it&#x27;s just not going to happen.<p>Besides, the real problem with debates is actually willful dishonesty.<p>There are vast hordes of sociopaths playing games and overcomplicating things to no end, arguing for positions they don&#x27;t actually hold, and basically just preventing discussions from ever getting anywhere.<p>The smart ones are like firehoses of sophistry and misdirection, the dumb ones just (fake-)rage and call people names, and I guess somewhere in between you&#x27;ll find militant feminists and race baiters and people calling for &quot;safe spaces&quot; and whatever nonsense they come up with.<p>Some sociopaths have come up with a fun new game: trying to convince people that the earth is actually flat. Yes, sadly that&#x27;s actually a thing. Look them up on YouTube or something.<p>But these &quot;people&quot; are the real reason why we can&#x27;t seem to have a reasonable discussion on anything.<p>Apparently it&#x27;s <i>enjoyable</i> for them to fuck everything up, and to prevent mankind&#x27;s progress towards enlightenment as best they can.<p>That seems like self-destructive behaviour, but they do it anyway. A bunch of them will see this post, but not one will sincerely help us understand.