- The final piece of arguing
is that you actually have to,
I would say radiate a certain
sense of calm and niceness.
What this means is that
if somebody comes at you
in a polite way, you're not
allowed to hit them with a club.
My rule in debate is that
you get to pick the weapon of your choice.
All right, it's like an old
fashioned, medieval duel.
You get to pick the rapier
or you get to pick the mace and chain.
And it's your choice.
I'm happy to argue
anyway you want to argue.
All right, if you want to
have a really nice, calm,
polite conversation I am
more than happy to do that,
it's what I prefer.
If you wanna be a jerk,
then I'm gonna hit you
really, really hard.
And what this means is that you
can never actually be seen as the bad guy.
Because when you're seen as the bad guy
is when you go totally disproportionate.
When you go totally disproportionate
you're seen as the bad guy.
Unless the audience is already
just angry at the person
that you're arguing with.
All right, then you wanna see
Donald Trump put Jeb Bush
through a wall or something.
But--
(audience laughing)
But otherwise, if you're
just debating with somebody,
as tempting as it is, you
cannot body slam them.
If they are just trying to play
by Marquess of Queensberry rules.
By the same token,
if they start punching
below the belt, finish them.
All right, if they start
punching below the belt,
you put them down for the count.
And that means using every
tool at your disposal.
It's the same thing
your dad taught you guys
when you were growing up
about dealing with bullies.
Right, that if they punch
you, you finish the fight.
But you don't start the fight.
All right it's the same
thing that's true in debate.
So what comes to mind is I
was once debating Cenk Uygur,
and we were doing this big debate
in front of about 3,000 people
and Cenk had done debates
the previous two years
with Ann Coulter and Dinesh D'Souza.
And in both of those debates
he'd gone really low.
In both of those debates,
he'd come up with this list
of quotes from both of them.
And just read quotes at
them to be really nasty.
And neither Dinesh nor Ann
were really prepared for that
because by actual personal interaction
they're both very polite people.
And I know both of them and
friendly with both of them.
And so they weren't expecting that.
They were expecting to
just have a normal debate
and instead Cenk came at
them with the kitchen sink.
I was expecting Cenk to come
at me with the kitchen sink.
And so I had eight pages
of stuff in my pocket.
Literally eight pages of stuff.
Right here.
And if he had gone low, I
would have hit him so hard.
I would've finished his
career on the stage,
if he had gone low, I mean it was--
(laughing)
I mean I had quote after quote from him
about his denial of the Armenian genocide.
I mean I was willing to go there.
And instead, Cenk, because he
was smart enough to realize
that the audience was kinda
stacked against him I think.
He had a polite debate.
We had a perfectly nice, polite debate
on Medicare, Medicaid
and healthcare spending
and all of this kind of stuff.
I really would have
preferred for it to go low
'cause it would've been
spectacular video, but--
(audience laughing)
But since it did not, I
did not have the ability,
it was not my job to go low.
So the other person
gets to pick the weapon
and then you finish them
with their own weapon.
That's what makes you
a really good debater.
