kropotkhristian:

Debate under patriarchy is actually an exercise in toxic masculinity. The person with the best ideas doesn’t win. If they did, we would all be trans-affirming people living on the gender spectrum, nobody would believe in creationism, global warming would be dealt with, and veganism would probably be more popular – those are all the ideas that scie tific experts agree are the most correct based on the actual evidence. But that isn’t what debate leads to. The person who wins a debate is the person that acts the most calm, angry, principled, and stubborn. It is all about appearing to be the most classically manly person. Some really ridiculous people who have shit evidence and shit ideas are really good at acting this way, and they “win” debates all the time.

As it turns out, I am pretty good at acting this way myself. But I know exactly what the fuck I am doing.