Should we argue or debate your point?

@jmo
That question is stupid! Your mother was known to associate with persons of ill repute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnTmBjk-M0c

I've watched plenty of debates; a debate is where you have a topic you are supposed to discuss, and then you completely ignore the question at hand and instead spew your prepared statement.

Arguements are everything that happen in these forums, and while it often involves a lot of crude and sometimes humorous and creative insults, all unnecessary of course, both sides are at least usually dwelling on a topic.

OK...real answer. Debate have formal rules and are strictly controlled, which in no way means that nobody is insulting anyone; of course insults can be thrown in a debate.

Arguments are free-for-all debates, and will generally be off-the-cuff, less prepared, and therefore, in a manner of speaking, more genuine.

Neither will necessarily offer you more information than the other, as debates can be as equally contrived and biased as an argument.

And you are all fucktard douchebags if you think I'm wrong.

That's not the worst thing you've called me, krellz.

Bo -- I love you. I haven't called you anything worse than that. And beside, they;re words. Remember what I taught you. Repeat after me and complete:

Sticks and stones can break my bones, but...

Chains and whips excite me. Just like last time.

Is arguing when you use capitals, 'cos London is way better than Washington DC ??

@Krellin,

"I've watched plenty of debates; a debate is where you have a topic you are supposed to discuss, and then you completely ignore the question at hand and instead spew your prepared statement."

Titling something a debate doesn't make it a debate. What you've seen are staged arguments.

On a related note, your mother is widely rumored to have frequently arrived home at a suspiciously late hour after spending copious amounts of time in low-class drinking establishments in the company of miscreants.

@hecks -- I was actually mocking the the American media calls "debates" in political season....yet another blatant failing of the American press.

and my mother is dead...

@krellin,
Had I insulted anybody else's late mother, I'd feel like a real heel. But given the intensity of some of your invective against others, I have confidence that you can take it.

But yes, you're quite right. I think we should get rid of the term "debates" for political campaign season and replace it with "dueling soundbites".

@hecks...heh heh. Mom's not dead. I think she's golfing right now, actually. :P

Yeah, I thought you might be dissembling there. I didn't worry about insulting you (you dish it out enough that you'd better be able to take it) but I did worry when I insulted JMO's mom. I was careful to do so in only the most genteel language.

I think arguing is more about showing dominance; it's not about bringing ideas together to come up with interesting new conclusions; though it is questionable that debating is either.

And thus neither appears to be useful; debating is at least some measure of skill (of the person arguing a point) and perhaps has a little more to do with the measure of the value of the points being discussed.