Using abstract nouns, adjectives, adverbs, et al.

[shemthepenman]

agreed. on all counts. you really are making this devil's advocate thing rather difficult.

Discussions don't have to be debates. My personal peevishness increases with each
false dichotomy I see. I think people must learn to do this from the news media, politicians, etc. .
It's a device to get your attention by creating controversy where none exists.
Example:
"Are social networking sites good for our society?"
This question is formed to illicit a "yes" or "no" response when there really isn't one.
(For most people, at least.)  

i agree that not all discussion needs to be a debate. although, in a kind of hegelian sense, an original synthesis can come from extreme oppositions. it also depends on what is at stake in the argument. if it is whether or not to mindlessly use abstract nouns in your poem, then debate is just an exercise to hone one's rhetorical dexterity, wakes the brain up, sparks those misfiring synapses, etc. in short, a bit of fun. however, some people may take this issue incredibly seriously, as if disagreeing with them is somehow an offence to the very core of their being-debates of this type are better left well alone, in my experience.

the other obvious benefit to debate is the aggression with which an opposing view can crash into the status quo. the opposing opinion need not withstand alternative non-dichotomous discussion, just as long as it damages the gregarious, unquestioned, reason. it is a kind of offensive conceptual short cut. contrarians often use this to great effect.

with these exceptions aside, in general people are just lazy when it comes to thinking, and usually get swept along with their own opinions. once they have the idea that, for example, social networking isn't (or is) good for society (based on some incidental personal experience or whatnot), then they rarely question it any further. or, alternatively, they like the sound of a phrase they once came up with years ago down the pub, that got majority nods from the drunks at the bar, and they hang onto it for dear life, and think they must be a latter-day marx, spitting troofs like it ain't no thang.

god, i'm bored. :/