Is it just me or are debates getting immature?

It seems everytime i watch a debate on a news channel the people debating resort to screaming and demanding silence, is it just me? Or has this always been the case? It seems they refrain from talking in a mature and logical fashion. Is it just me?

For people to talk in a mature and logical fashion first they have to be mature and logical, here lies the problem.Try watching sesame street instead

Originally posted by 12voltz
For people to talk in a mature and logical fashion first they have to be mature and logical, here lies the problem.Try watching sesame street instead

Ahaha, Its basically like watching elmo and oscar the grouch arguing.

Originally posted by reesie45
It seems everytime i watch a debate on a news channel the people debating resort to screaming and demanding silence, is it just me? Or has this always been the case? It seems they refrain from talking in a mature and logical fashion. Is it just me?

That's what I think of when I hear the name "Fox News". Reading your OP made me think of Glenn Beck screaming about something then crying a few minutes later....

[edit on 3/8/2010 by Chamberf=6]

It's really tragic when you compare the US news now with clips from, say, the 1960s or before. You used to have several people sitting around having a calm, well-reasoned debate, going into nuances, treating each other with resepect, etc. You can still see this kind of thing on non-US news shows, but everywhere else it is on the decline, too. The US seems to be the bleeding edge of a global trend towards the coarsening of debate.

Soon, when the "Twitter generation" with its Swiss-cheesed attention span reaches maturity, even the average ATS post may be too much to process. "TL,DR" will become the mantra of intellectual decline

A lot of people on ATS and elsewhere look up to the fictional character Howard Beale from the movie "Network," pehaps best known for his movie-screen rant "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" While the attitude of Mr. Beale might have seemed appropriate in his time and place, the model of the "mad prophet of the airwaves" has become the norm, with shrieking and howling seen as more genuine and real than patient, reasoned debate. The result has been an across-the-board quality decline in all political debate, and the favoring of emotion over reason. It's a shame.

reply to post by reesie45


No it isn't just you and I really don't want to be the one to tell you this but TV isn't the only place this is happening!

reply to post by reesie45


No, it's not just you, you jerk. You have to believe what I do or your an idiot. I used to watch some of the talking heads do their round table stuff but it usually turns into a shouting match so I stopped. Your right, people should be more civil especially when they don't agree.

reply to post by crazydaisy

So true!

There was a particularly good one someone posted the other day, from the MSM. It went something like:

Blonde Anchor: "Shut up, you're stupid."
Guest: "But..."
Blonde Anchor: "You don't know what you're talking about."
Guest: "Well I was just going to say..."
Blonde Anchor: "Give someone else on the panel a chance to talk."

It's not just you, reesie!

reply to post by reesie45


News anchor debates are ridiculous. They pretty much pay the one side to lose. Theres always a favoritism, and they do everything they can to point it out.


edit add: side note, this is why I like watching betterbadnews every once and again. They mimic it well.

[edit on 3-8-2010 by Myendica]

It stems from polarized viewpoints. The media revolves around wrong/right without middle ground as does much of politics and religion.

This makes it hard to debate anything. Closed minds simply want to spew their "truth". This is true for ALL sides currently. Compromise is a dirty word in society at this time.

Originally posted by Noncompatible
It stems from polarized viewpoints. The media revolves around wrong/right without middle ground as does much of politics and religion.

This makes it hard to debate anything. Closed minds simply want to spew their "truth". This is true for ALL sides currently. Compromise is a dirty word in society at this time.

Yes.

There is a terrible human tendency to confuse simplicity of opinion and loudness of expression with sincerity and truth. Truth is usually opaque and nuanced. And one can hold a subtle, nuanced opinion without being wishy-washy. In fact, a strong, valid committment to the truth DEMANDS a nuanced opinion. Those who opt for simplicity over nuance are generally either cowardly, lazy, or stupid, and they raise their voices to hide this underlying fact.

reply to post by silent thunder


Indeed. I long for the days when one could state.

" I disagree with your viewpoint, but respect and recognize the validity of your argument."

This of course is not a response to your post, as I wholeheartedly concur.

they are not debating, they are spitting out programming which has no intelligence connected to it. We have at least two generations of people who have been programmed perfectly to spit out what has been put into them: Lefty liberals, tax and spend, gay agenda, conservative values and so on.

Folks are simply repeating those lines over and over again. Guess what, this is the rest of your life, as this is all there is going to be for the next 15-20 years of public discourse. Isn't it grand. You are watching robots talking with robots.

I assure you that it is not just you.

Debates between politicians, news anchors and even radio personalities seem to have slipped into something akin to a bunch of five year old children, arguing over who gets to go down the slide first.


It is a disgusting thing that needs to be done away with. For god sake, we are all adults... It's high time we start acting like adults!

This is not new... It is just how things have changed over several years...As Rodney Dangerfield might say.... No Respect.

Not only are they immature, but they're irrelevant and wreak of impotence to the extreme of any spectrum.

It's ALL entertainment. People like to see other people fighting, so that's what their scripts tell them to do. Plain, simple-minded, and completely useless.

I don't watch it a lot mind you, but has anybody noticed that there always seems to be a new blonde bimbo barbie-doll type bobble-head every week on every station? You can almost see their a$$ sometimes. At least they're not giving us our daily dose of non-news spin with ugly people, I guess.

Kinda gives a new perspective to the "DOG" in "watchdog" doesn't it? They're ALL a joke just waitin' to happen.

[edit on 4-8-2010 by lagnar]

EXACTLY, all of your responses are totally correct. Its dissapointing, the only good place to have any kind of debate is on here it seems. At least you cant hear people on here right?