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Gracious debate requires gracious victory. If you cause someone to stop and seriously reconsider their perspective, don't force their submission by going 'Gotcha' or 'see! You can't answer that!' Changing a mind is hard enough, let's not make it harder by feeling superior.

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Aella

@Aella_Girl

Jan 21, 2018

It's like, "Oh, I see you did an incredibly difficult and vulnerable thing by displaying uncertainty about your position. I guess now's a good time to JAB at that sore spot!"

Aella

@Aella_Girl

This is my only complaint with that now-infamous

@jordanbpeterson

channel 4 debate. He was super amazing in all the rest of it though.

9:52 AM · Jan 21, 2018

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Thrasymachus Blushing

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It was only after he said “gotcha” that she seemed to enjoy herself. Her smile was broad, rather than pinched, as it had been to that point. I know that joy myself. It comes when I find myself really playing, rather than going through the motions.

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I'm generally pretty skeptical of facial expression analysis, and I think it's much more likely that she didn't experience pleasure after being told 'gotcha' after she failed to defend her point on television in front of a wide audience.

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I don't hold that against him in context. The importance of gracious victory is proportional to the obviousness of the victory. He had scored a pretty clear point, but was otherwise embroiled in a long and unproductive discussion that was not on his terms.

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I don't feel any sense of judgment about it. I think both of us are right.

Thrasymachus Blushing

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I think your general point is right, but I didn’t find him belying it in the “gotcha” comment. After all, he could have said that a dozen times. I think he chose that moment judiciously and said it light-heartedly, which is how she seemed to receive it.

Thrasymachus Blushing

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She seemed to be treating the whole interview as sport, whereas he was trying to speak the complicated truth. I think in that moment he acknowledged that he too could play that game.

Thrasymachus Blushing

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It was like a basketball player who has been fouled many times without getting a whistle finally fouling the opponent and grinning gamely, as if to say: “I’d rather not play that way, but I just want to show you I can if I have to.” As a competitor, she seemed to get that.

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I definitely agree - although I can understand how, in that moment, it's difficult to refrain from expressing pleasure in finally getting the opponent to acknowledge your point. It didn't feel like gloating so much as relief that the person had finally been forced to listen.

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To be fair, he was in a rather deep pit of ungraciousness. I don’t fault him for spending his rhetorical energy just keeping his cool under that assault. I really don’t enjoy that format of “debate”.

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I really don't see us moving to a world where people don't punish you for being a gracious loser. I have never not been punished for it. I have never seen anyone not be punished for it.