What I do favor about the “anti-offensive mode” is that it makes it easier to establish and rely upon a common ground of shared notions and terminal/instrumental values
I’m not sure that I agree that this is the case. Yes, the anti-offensive mode works when everyone involved has a common ground of shared notions and terminal/instrumental values, and so I agree it relies on that. But it seems to me that when values diverge, it’s not clear to me that that mode will create that; it seems like taking offense leads to factionalization much more easily than debate as a sport. People swapping sides on an issue in a debate team setting seems natural, but people swapping sides in an anti-offensive discussion seems rare.
People swapping sides on an issue in a debate team setting seems natural, but people swapping sides in an anti-offensive discussion seems rare.
Unfortunately, “people swapping sides” basically never happens in highly factionalized debates: at some point, the adversarial mode degrades into “debate as war/struggle”, with no redeeming sportmanship. I think this is something that the sensitivity mode might be able to guard against. Even “taking offense” is not wholly unproductive after all: we should keep in mind that there are many issues that people physically fight over. Even leaving the issue of shared notions/values aside, the sensitivity mode seems to be much more open to “political” mitigation efforts such as mediation, compromise and conflict de-escalation.
I’m not sure that I agree that this is the case. Yes, the anti-offensive mode works when everyone involved has a common ground of shared notions and terminal/instrumental values, and so I agree it relies on that. But it seems to me that when values diverge, it’s not clear to me that that mode will create that; it seems like taking offense leads to factionalization much more easily than debate as a sport. People swapping sides on an issue in a debate team setting seems natural, but people swapping sides in an anti-offensive discussion seems rare.
Unfortunately, “people swapping sides” basically never happens in highly factionalized debates: at some point, the adversarial mode degrades into “debate as war/struggle”, with no redeeming sportmanship. I think this is something that the sensitivity mode might be able to guard against. Even “taking offense” is not wholly unproductive after all: we should keep in mind that there are many issues that people physically fight over. Even leaving the issue of shared notions/values aside, the sensitivity mode seems to be much more open to “political” mitigation efforts such as mediation, compromise and conflict de-escalation.