Exclusively debating 19 year olds is not open discourse

Exhibit A:

Stop infantilizing college students 19 year olds are adults who can VOTE. Before going to college, they spend 13 years in K-12 system If they aren’t prepared to have a low-stakes debate on a college quad, then they shouldn’t be in college (or voting)

Calling Kirk's shtick "debating" is a misnomer anyway. He was just using woke college kids as background noise for his same old talking points. He wasn't hoping to convince any of those students either, he was trying to make them look stupid for the audience at home.

You can listen (and watch!) the new episode of The Downside podcast #316 with Siobhan Thompson on Spotify and YouTube!

Kirk only debating college kids gives the same vibes as a highschool senior dating a freshman, just a creepy loser who knows they’d get exposed as the freak they are if they were ever subjected to an even playing field

If you are old enough to vote, then yes, you should be challenged about your political beliefs You can’t say “debating 19 year olds” isn’t fair because they are young. And then also align yourself with a party that wants to lower the voting age to 16

He lost at Cambridge? Not what I saw, but it was good discussion anyway. And "my mum was a professor who studied cults" is a silly way to name drop and get credentials you personally don't have.

The only way Kirk "won" debates is babblespeak... he talked over his opponent, he increased his volume and didn't allow counterpoints (or scoffed at them). He didn't "debate" at all. Not even once. The closest he got was Cambridge - where they KNOW HOW to debate - and he lost.

IS THAT MY GOAT, SIOBHAN THOMPSON?!

Isn't the point that college is supposed to challenge worldviews and intellectual thought? Are we saying that 19 year olds aren't legal adults capable of thinking for themselves? I suppose college is just glorified daycare these days.

That's insane cope. Going to college campuses was to provide the other side of the argument of the cultural Marxism propaganda being spread by the professors.

wowl, siobhan for the win. also now i need to watch more dimension 20, especially if theres an arc where theyre going after cultists, cause damn

Goodness this gay dude and fat chic are dumb as F

Completely unrelated to what they're talking about, but it's wild seeing someone's accent change over time and become more American.

This is a prime example of rationalizing to save face after the fact. Charlie Kirk debated professors on the campuses he visted, as well. He invited the students to bring their professors out to the debates. There were also multiple instances of students following him from campus to campus in an effort to re-engage him over and over. Forcing students to justify their positions and opinions used to be what college was about. Charlie also appeared on Jubilee Media events where participants are very well prepared. Challenging the standards of current knowledge is the true goal of education, but higher educational institutions have become an ideological homoginization project where disseting opinions are shouted down by mobs and shamed into silence with nefarious administrative tactics and procedures by the elitist ruling class. See Brett Weinstein's eye-opening story about Evergreen College.

Ok so raise the voting age. You are ok when YOI can manipulate them.

It’s crazy to me that you argue that a child can know they are in the wrong body and make a life altering choice, but the minute we ask them to defend their opinions or beliefs, that’s too far…

For me, I do not care if the debate is honest, in good faith, has ulterior motives, or whatever. Engaging young people in dialogue is necessary, especially voting age ‘kids’ whose only debate experience is online. If you think it should be done different, GO DO IT.

I never watched Kirk's content so maybe this actually happened. Why didn't the professors in these colleges get in line to talk to him especially if he was actually perceived as someone spewing dangerous rhetoric.

Absolute bullshit. Why do young people go to college? To get an education, right? So we may as well just say that they are at the equal mercy of mostly liberal college professors whose intent is not just educate them, but to indoctrinate them! How dare they! These professors teach a hundred young adults per day! They've heard every single opposing viewpoint. They've had years of preparation. Listen, dipshits who hold this view: College is, should be, a place for sharing ideas and viewpoints. It should be a place of not just providing information directly, but cooperative dialectical inquiry. It should be an open forum for the discussion of ideas. Socratic method anyone? Anyone? Bueller? You think Charlie Kirk went to debate university kids because they were easy pickings? He did so because these are the places, the times in young adults' lives where their individual ideas are formed, where their former ideologies should be challeneged. That was the entire point of his work! It wasn't because college kids are weak and easily manipulated; it's precisely because they are in a critical stage of forming their own world views, and they need as much opportunity to listen to all sides as possible! Fuck these people who think that Charlie Kirk's only intention was to debate college kids because they are stupid, or something. What a horrible admission on their part.

College students should be SMARTER than the average American. We need to start asking why we all expect and know that they will actually be dumber

To Kirk’s point though (and not suggesting I was overall fan of his or his platform) if you’re 19 then you are an eligible to be registered voter. A lot of 19 years old are absolute morons. Don’t you think having debates get voters to think a little bit more?

Where do you prefer public debate? Jasmine Crockett on maddow?

Woman who was 31 when she started working for ‘collegehumour’ complains about dude who was 18 when he started debating on college campus be ause aparently he was too old to connect with voting age adults.

Isn't that the one girl from Collegehumor?

People dont understand that it was Kirk's job to debate. He studied specifc niche topics to "win" debates in. These college kids have strong opinions but usually dont know everything in and out. He'd pray on the emotional state of who he debated. Turning it into a right and wrong

woo! go siobhan! that’s my favourite rick and morty writer!

Absolutely love this one, Siobhan is great

When the airline loses Tim Dillon’s luggage and the town doesn’t have a DXL so he goes to Torrid.

This is a garbage argument. One of the primary goals of a college is to teach students how to debate and how to confront ideas they may dislike or find distasteful. Your argument seems to be that they shouldn’t have to be confronted with ideas they don’t like and that’s nonsense

This is such a stupid take that just reeks of ignorance and entitlement to go out and say this bullshit on a podcast, that the only possible way to respond is in a format your fucking stupid mind can comprehend

One of the main points of colleges is to have open discourse. What are these losers talking about???

siobhan is fantastic, she was fantastic in this episode

I thought Kirk was uneducated and they were all academics who made fun of his lack of education?