It might spice things up a bit if there were a format where people could only respond contrary to their true belief. It might open the perspectives of some, or at least help the debating skills of others. At the end of a subject line, write Devil's advocate only.
Nice idea. The true test of debating skill is when you argue for a position you don't really believe
in. Of course, anyone can do this whenever they want, and sometimes I do it just for a laugh, but it
might be interesting to have some support on the site for that option.
Devil's Advocate only debates could even be placed in a separate category of their own, much like
the Articles section is now, so you could only access it if you wanted to. This might help avoid the
problem of random people turning up and expressing their true opinions. Either that, or people
making a contribution to any debate could have the option of turning on a "Devil's Advocate" flag to
show that they don't really believe what they are saying.
I'm not sure some of our ranting demagogues would be able to accurately represent their opponents' position without making a farce of the whole debate.
10 May 2008 19:50
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