fandomhigh | Debating, Friday September 21

Chuck strolled into class a good five minutes late. This tardiness did not concern him in the least. It was five less minutes he had to spend teaching, right?

He called for the class to quiet down, regardless of their actual noise level or attentiveness. “I want everyone who did extra credit to hand in their generalizations about board-face. Pass them over to him, so that he can get to read them before he hands them in.” He gave the class ample time, then grabbed the generalizations from poor Valentine.

“Today we’re learning the ‘Straw Man’ technique. You set up a misrepresentation of the opponent's position, refute it, and pretend that the opponent's actual position has been refuted. If you do this right, you can set up your “Straw Man” close enough to the opponent’s argument that when you smash it, you smash the real argument as well.”

“Let’s have an example. Say that I’m talking to one of the colleagues at my old school, Flatpoint. As advisers to the principal, there were very important decisions that we had to discuss. Imagine you’re in my shoes, and that the choice you/I make will be implemented and change the school. Losing is not an option.” Chuck added losers suck to his notes on the board. “Say that your colleague wants to remodel the garden in front of the school, when you think it’s just fine, that the statue of the principal is a source of authority and the flowers that are already there are just fine, and there’s nothing in the budget for it so you’d probably get roped into spending a whole Saturday at the school and why the hell would you want to come back for a day of unpaid work, it just a stupid idea, Geoffrey, why do you come up with things like this, it doesn’t make sense, you’re a silly little art teacher and what you know, you in your flouncy little spring shirts, why do you wear them when they’re so damn distracting anyway-”

Chuck stopped. He cleared his throat with something more akin to a squeak. “W-well, the point is that you could say that this- this person’s choice to take out the statue of the principal destroys the sense of authority, and is therefore unpatriotic. After all, if he’s destroying one symbol of authority, what next, a flag?”

“Get it? Break up into pairs and try it out. I’m done teaching. Let’s finish up so I can go call my wife.”

OOC: ~~Not quite ready…~~ It's that great come and get it day! Come and get your schooling!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Break off into pairs and form irrelevant conclusions, hoping to deface the real ones.

Willow got ready to make straw man arguments. She felt that she could be very good at this.

Naminé smiled at the other girl. "What are we to be arguing about? Should we select a topic at random?"

"We could argue about scarecrows," Willow suggested.

"Right," Naminé said. "I've never trusted them, myself. Far too dangerous. Shall you defend them from my appalling slander?"

"Well, who are we to say that they shouldn't have all the hay that they need in order to fill their clothing?" Willow said. "I'm not sure how anyone could make that argument."

"It isn't the hay that concerns me," Naminé mused. "It's the way they're plotting with the birds. Clearly, they're up to something. Possibly Communism."

"I'm not so sure about that," Willow said. "Maybe the birds are lonely and this way they can have friends."

"Communist friends," Naminé said with a laugh. "Are you supporting the birds, in their Communism?"

Re: Straw Man

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Cher was definitely ready to argue. She'd gotten a lot of practice in Mad Science class. Hey, who knew! It was good for something!

Pick someone to argue with. Someone to argue with.

Someone who looked easy to argue with.

Ah, she'd do.

Valentine sat down by Cher and grinned.

"Shall we argue?"

"No," Cher said.

Then she grinned. "Psh. Just practicing. Sure!"

"Psh?"

Valentine looked a little confused, then shrugged it off and resumed grinning. "What should we argue about, then?" He thought for a moment. "Aren't you in that Mad Science class? The one with the teacher who has the frightening mouth?"

"Yes! And all the weird mad sciencey things that I will never use in my entire life," Cher said with an eyeroll. "Want to be pro or con death weapons maybe?"

"Which would you be? Pro or con?" Valentine didn't know much about death weapons aside from what he'd learned in class, but he figured he could probably bull his way through this. Hopefully. Perhaps.

"I'm normally very con-death weapon," she said. "So maybe I should take pro! Hone my argument skills or whatever."

Valentine suddenly looked very, very relieved at this.

"Excellent!" He grinned and clapped his hands. "Because I happen to have a few very good anti-death-weapon arguments. I just... also happen to not know any death weapons from this particular world rather well."

So very much bull was going to get him through this.

"Shall I begin, then?"

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Turtle waited for her victim to come to her. Unless it was Jeff. She would still refuse to ever debate with him in this class.

"Hey," Jim said. "Money should be yellow."

"What are you?" Turtle asked with a disturbed frown. "Racist?"

"What do you have against NASCAR?" Jim asked. "You hate the South that much?"

Turtle's eyes narrowed slightly. She had been a fool to doubt Jim's prowess. Jim almost had as much prowess as she. Almost.

"Clearly," she said, "you'll never understand."

"Because you'll never be able to explain it right?" Jim asked.

"Because I like using words that are too polysyllabic for you."

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Charlie was not about to debate with Turtle. For one thing, best friend. For another? She'd so lose. So she waited for someone just a *little* less focused then T.R. Wexler to need a partner.