The spread of online hate groups

[perpetuus]

The Perpetual Now

, it’s because the right doesn’t argue in good faith that debates are doomed to fail unless the other side devolves into using the same tactics, at which point the ‘debate’ becomes nothing more than a game of impressing the audience. This is why AOC refused to debate Shapiro: his entire schtick is making as many claims as possible within his allotted time that the opponent can only make a full response to a fraction of them during his own — and so, if they play his game, they’re put entirely on the defensive. Unless you’re particularly comfortable with public confrontation of this sort of behavior, and you have the maturity and experience to understand that’s what he’s doing,

and

you’re skilled in the same sort of verbal put-downs as he, you’re not going to have a good time.

Unless you’re saying the left needs demagogues on the same level as the right, then “debate” is still useless.

But most of Shapiro's instances of "destroying" opponents are videos of him debating ill-prepared college students. He doesn't always do as well when his opponents are prepared and know their shit. Same is true about most of the right wing 'shock jocks' such as Crowder. I'm not sure why people are scared to debate Shapiro. Even Joe Rogan was able to get him to stumble and stammer a couple times when he was a guest on his show, and Rogan didn't need to sink to demagoguery or shouting over Shapiro to achieve this--he used logic and in at least one moment it was clear where Shapiro stumbled because he realized he didn't have a good logical argument to back his position on gay marriage. Rogan isn't exactly the most confrontational, aggressive person in his debating/argument style, so if he could hold his own, there's no reason the best the left could offer couldn't do the same and better without having to sink to some of the tactics you mention.