To criticize hypocrisy in debate you don’t even have to understand the other’s argument—you only have to be able to find a logical contradiction, and you can always find a contradiction, or something you can plausibly claim is a contradiction.
For the debater, it may be very hard to give up. Many of us can find (or generate plausible arguments for) contradictions with 10% of your brain power, thus keeping the other on the defensive, while using the rest of ones mind to search for a deeper argument. But for this reason it makes for tedious unilluminating debate, and ought to be given less encouragement than it gets—that is, if we want more insightful argument.
To criticize hypocrisy in debate you don’t even have to understand the other’s argument—you only have to be able to find a logical contradiction, and you can always find a contradiction, or something you can plausibly claim is a contradiction.
For the debater, it may be very hard to give up. Many of us can find (or generate plausible arguments for) contradictions with 10% of your brain power, thus keeping the other on the defensive, while using the rest of ones mind to search for a deeper argument. But for this reason it makes for tedious unilluminating debate, and ought to be given less encouragement than it gets—that is, if we want more insightful argument.