Registration for 1 on 1 political debate threads

[natedogg]

Abolish public schools and compulsory eduction - pro

natedogg

[AlexM]

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Abolish public schools and compulsory eduction - pro

natedogg

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By abolish public schools do you mean abolish them entirely, move to vouchers/privitization or either? I'd like to see either of these, but they're very different.

[iron81]

We had largely been going in the order of who signed up first. However, for the next debate, I think an abortion debate between Vulturesrow and Shakezula has potential.

[xorbie]

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Race is socially constructed (pro)

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Could you define this more carefully? I know not much about the issue but would be willing to take a con side so long as it isn't just a pointless excercise in semantics (although one could argue that everything is [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]).

[latefordinner]

well it will certainly be the most semantic of all the debates I proposed since it is dealing with a linguistic category and postmodern thought, but how's this:

I will use Omi and Winant's starting point that “race is an unstable and ‘decentered’ complex of social meanings constantly being transformed by political struggle” -

furthermore that there is no essential categorical difference based on skin-color or other physical features that can map onto racial categories. Furthermore that race is malleable over time and place, and that "whiteness" in particular has no meaning outside of a structure of white privilege.

Not that I am not arguing that race is not "real" - I believe social constructions are very real (or more to the point, I believe all reality is a social construction) - simply that there is not a biological basic for racial categories.

I accept that something can be empirically real yet we do not know what it is, so I'm not going to nec. say that if you take the pro-side you have to specify what the different races of humans are (how many, what are their deliniations, etc) but you'll certainly have to justify why you can't.

On second thought, this particular debate might be better suited to the SMP forum [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Zygote]

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simply that there is not a biological basic for racial categories.


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if I put a hundred people in front of you and give pre defined categorical races by which to match them by. Let say ashkenazi jew, sub-suharan african, native american, and east asian. Could you successfully sort the people, by just looking at them, into the categories given no other information? What does this signify to you?

[latefordinner]

uhh, i don't think this is actually the debate thread, just the registration thread man

[GoodCallYouWin]

I'd like to sign up for a debate. Any debate!

[Zygote]

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uhh, i don't think this is actually the debate thread, just the registration thread man

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Fair enough.

[neverforgetlol]

"Capitalism can exist independent of the state" the argument that makes or breaks AC. I might be interested, taking the con. I'm sure there are plenty of pro's here.