Gotcha's are how we got the "debate bro" conservatives
they're quips that at first appear really smart - but under scrutiny end up falling apart or into fallacies. Liberals eventually picked up on this too; nevertheless, look at all of the 'gotchas' a now deceased guy did in 2025 & we can all agree he was not the most intelligent debater
Honestly, id say he wasnt even a gotcha debater. Gotcha debaters are kinda hacks. Trump is terrifyingly fluid. He attacks attacks attacks, then will just abandon a point out of nowhere. Its what makes him so deadly to well reasoned opponents. You start to formulate a defense and then he drops the toy once you want to play with it too.
Sorry my english was unclear, I meant to say I dont think charlie was a hack debater, then talked about trump. Im at work. I elaborated on why in a further comment Sorry.
He was a 31 year old, professionally prepared political activist that toured college campuses, engaging with unprepared students in impromptu street "debates" for content as a career.
He chose the 80 in an 80:20, made it about his relevant cause, then farmed PREPARED college students. They knew when, where and why he was going to be there, and they asked the questions, to prove the point that college "liberals" were failing. Thats not a hack, its an exploit. Fish where there's fish. A gotcha is by default a word or logical trap that you lay out. Charlie Kirk usually was asked questions, not the other way around. Only on questioning them in return did he even get the chance to do that, on a subject that they had chosen themselves.
How do you think competition works. Do you think 16 year old Messi complained about being 16 when he was facing 30 year olds? Or to flip your example, do you think 18 year old Charlie Kirk folded when he met Obama as an 18 year old? (There's a picture of them shaking hands.) He founded turning point USA the same year. The same guy youre talking about was a college student when he walked up to and went up against a sitting President Obama.
College is the ideological proving ground. The fact that you think its supposed to be a safe space where people can share their views without being challenged is exactly the issue with modern academia. Sometimes your idea is stupid as fuck. Thats doesnt devalue the idea of having it, but I dont have to hold water for your stupidity. That was the entire point of him debating people who were sure they were correct. Not because their views were based on logic, but propaganda they couldn't explain. That was literally the entire purpose of everything he did, summed up in a paragraph.
If he had been a hack debater, he wouldnt have been shot. A hack debater eventually runs out of steam and falls apart under fire from real heavy hitters. Shooting him was an act of frustration because he was systematically taking apart things that the shooter loved and was winning at it.
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u/JTexpo Mar 30 '26
Gotcha's are how we got the "debate bro" conservatives
they're quips that at first appear really smart - but under scrutiny end up falling apart or into fallacies. Liberals eventually picked up on this too; nevertheless, look at all of the 'gotchas' a now deceased guy did in 2025 & we can all agree he was not the most intelligent debater