Incubate Debate Asks Students: 'Do You Want To Be Right, Or Do You Want To Seek Truth?'

I tell our students at Incubate Debate that we are here to seek truth. I told them they can only have one goal at our debate tournaments: do you want to be right, or do you want to seek truth? If you want to be right, you’ll fall into confirmation bias. You’ll only hear what you want to hear. You’ll shut down different opinions. You’ll say, “He’s a Republican,” or “She’s a Democrat,” or “She’s a Marxist,” or “He’s a fascist,” and decide none of it is worth hearing.

You’ll think, “I’m right no matter what,” even when evidence contradicts you. That’s what being right looks like.

But seeking truth is different. Seeking truth isn’t about backing down. As my grandmother always told me, we have two ears and one mouth for a reason: we should be listening twice as often as we speak. If the evidence proves you wrong, even when you believed with every fiber of your being that you were right, it’s okay to change your mind. It means you’re getting closer to truth.

That is what debate is about. It’s not a game or competition for its own sake. At Incubate Debate, we see competition as a means to an end, and that end is truth. What better way to pursue truth than through the very practice of open debate that our founders embraced as they set this great country into motion?