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The problem with debate in America
Charlie Kirk and his fellow young conservatives held fast to the belief that the best thought wins. That theory falls apart in a country as violent as the United States.
Alex Galbraith
September 12, 2025
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In arma, veritas?
The beacons of young conservatism are all held together by one core belief.
It’s not that progressive rhetoric is out of control. It’s not being staunchly anti-abortion or hatefully anti-LGBTQ. It’s not even a rock-ribbed stance on the Second Amendment. No, the Steven Crowders, Ben Shapiros, and (until this week) Charlie Kirks of the world all base their respective projects on the idea that spirited debate is the only way to reach the objective truth.
There’s plenty of easy knocks on this foundational idea, particularly as it’s practiced by the “debate me” bros of the new right.
They’ve been molded by the internet, their livelihood entirely predicated on views and subscriptions. As a result, these media personalities drawing young men toward conservatism are louder and more hyperbolic than the Buckleys and Kristols they see as their forebears. Their style of debate values cortisol spikes over substantive points. It matters a little that they try to explain themselves clearly. It matters quite a bit more that their editors can pull a clip of an upset college student and turn it into a compilation of “owns.”
Though Kirk traded in the same overblown rhetoric, he clearly valued this central, Socratic tenet more than his peers. He carried on his practice of holding court in the public square well after his status as a youth whisperer ushered him into the highest echelons of conservative politics. It’s not exactly surprising, then, that he was the first to encounter the reason why the United States can’t organize itself around public debate: we’re too armed and too angry.
The conservative firebrand, who was shot dead during a debate at a Utah university earlier this week, certainly contributed to this state of affairs. He profited from stoking his audience’s rage at minorities and political opponents. He repeatedly argued that the random gun violence experienced every day in America was a worthy price to pay for an unrestricted right to bear arms. The problem, as Kirk unfortunately found out, is that a regular supply of white-hot fury from the media, easy access to firearms and a healthy tradition of occasionally heated argument can’t co-exist. Something has to give. Too often, it’s a fragile human body.
Kirk and his fellow true believers loved pointing out logical fallacies, and they have had plenty of chances to realize there was something untenable in their position. The same schools that take the time to instill Socrates’ vision of learning through debate are regularly turned into charnel houses by unstable young people with unconscionable access to weapons of war. The local news broadcasts of every town in the country lead with stories about people who hashed out their disagreement in the quickest and most destructive way possible. Americans are raring for an argument at all times, and the nation’s headlines prove a bullet is the ultimate thought-terminating cliche.
What do you think? Is it possible to have reasonable public discourse in a country loaded down with weaponry and resentment? Will we ever move past the idea that an armed society is a polite society? Click the speech bubble to sound off in the comments.
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