How to Win a Political Debate in 5 Easy Steps: Joshua Thompson (Transcript)

Full text of Joshua Thompson’s talk: How to Win a Political Debate in 5 Easy Steps at TEDxWWU conference.

Listen to the MP3 Audio here:

TRANSCRIPT:

Joshua Thompson – WWU Political Psychology Lab

It’s April 2016, which means we are currently in the middle of one of the greatest spectacles on the face of the earth, and that would be… my clicker not working. That’s a pretty big spectacle. There we go. Oh! Let’s try this again.

The United States presidential election.

But now by this time, we’ve been inundated with political ads and candidates screaming at each other and Facebook posts with everybody just going nuts, and at this point if you’re a normal person, that’s how you feel.

But if you’re me, you’re like, “Please sir, could I have some more.” I absolutely love politics. I love watching politics. I love to talk about politics. And I really think it’s a travesty in this country that politics have become such a taboo topic.

It’s something we don’t want to talk about. We don’t want to talk about it at family gatherings; we don’t want to talk about it at bars when you’re enjoying an adult beverage; we just kind of steer away from it and that’s really sad. It’s something that we should engage in, we should talk about, and we shouldn’t be afraid to talk about.

One thing that’s lost in our politics is civility. We seem to come from a place of ideology, and when we come from this place of ideology, there’s something that’s lost, and that’s fast. And it’s important to remember that facts do matter. When we’re talking about politics, it’s important to know your facts.