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James Madison U. Debate Team Refuses to Debate Transgender Ideology

James Madison U. Debate Team Refuses to Debate Transgender Ideology

“They think that they are the arbiters of truth and therefore ‘truth’ cannot be debated”

The left is treating this issue like climate change. They think it’s settled and beyond debate.

The College Fix reports:

JMU debate team refuses to debate transgender ideology

James Madison University’s Debate Team recently released a statement explaining it will not debate topics its members feel are “exclusionary, discriminatory or hostile.”

Additionally, the team said its members will not debate the topic of transgender ideology because those who identify as such should be “free from discriminatory attacks on their identity, motives, and character.”

The statement was released in response to Young America’s Foundation hosting of conservative pundit Liz Wheeler’s talk “The Ideology of Transgenderism” at James Madison University.

The talk drew a large protest Wednesday evening outside the venue, but Wheeler was able to give her entire speech.

Wheeler responded to the JMU debate team’s stance with a statement of her own.

“They think that they are the arbiters of truth and therefore ‘truth’ cannot be debated,” she said in response.

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Comments

“They think it’s settled and beyond debate.”

That it’s settled would imply that there was some debate in the past. In reality, the past was only barbarism.

The new beliefs are enlightened, the only real Truth. Any attempt at debate is unenlightened, and therefore evil. Shut up and do what you’re told!

Morning Sunshine | April 29, 2023 at 4:56 pm

I am up for debating anything. I would love to see a debate about women’s suffrage – settled since 1920. I am a woman, I am fully versed in suffrage history, and I am willing to debate that, from either side.

If you cannot debate your sacred cows, they are not worth your time and energy to believe. Debate allows you to formulate your defense, fine tune your arguments, and – if done correctly – allows you do understand the other side so you can address concerns. By refusing to debate these issues, the left is conceding that it is a faith and a religion, and a heresy to disbelieve

I was an intercollegiate debater in the mid 70s and a debate coach and judge in the late 80s. I returned to judging for one tournament in around 2002 or so, and I have to say I will never return to the activity again — in part because of nonsensical outlooks like this one.

There was one debater who turned his constructive speech into a ukulele recital, and there was a team that argued, no matter what resolution or case they were facing, that it should all be ignored until we deal with structural racism (if you disagreed you were racist).

So I imagine that that — structural racism — is also beyond debate, along with the evils of capitalism and the reality of CAGW. These are the uncriticizable assumptions, or as Aristotle might say, the a priori truths that make up the dominant world view of college debaters (oh, and also the nonexistence of God, may He help them, or anything transcendent).

I hope, before it’s too late, that this group discovers they are building a house on sand.

“The left is treating this issue like climate change. They think it’s settled and beyond debate.”
The ludicrousness of such a claim, in a period when the Flat Earth Society is making a serious resurgence.