1. The Marxist Kritik document has “dialectical materialism” in it. This is a Big Deal – Hegel, perhaps Rousseau, were interested in “dialectic” things and how they function in the philosophies. I’m saying it is worth reading up on, it is a substantial part of the philosophy :

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism

2. A Devil’s Advocate argument for the speed (which I haven’t heard yet) : get better YouTube hits. Ben Shapiro (noted above) indeed sounds quick. I’d note that he and many many other videos from many very different channels highly edit the spoken words so there is little “dead time”.

Of course, if the train of logic is on the rails, or one is knowledgeable of the material, it could be useful. But of course, all that can vary.

But I’m anticipating the worst as I cue up the linked thought reform “debate”.

…[listens to 20 seconds ]…

That is god-awful to listen to or even follow. It ain’t debate, and ain’t like Ben Shapiro or even Mr. Beast – or even good virtuoso musicians, FFS. Maybe it has something to do with the automated YouTube transcript, but no idea.

Devil’s Advocate argument is rebuffed.

I agree that anyone announcing themselves proudly as Marxist-Leninist-Maoist is either profoundly naive or worse, a true believer with all the brutal implications. But when the name Machiavelli comes up I’m always taken back to this article that brings into context the world he was writing in, and the nuances of his significance. Fascinating read:
https://www.exurbe.com/machiavelli-s-p-q-f/

Intelligence Squared’s Boris Johnson v Mary Beard debate was entertaining – as expected, Johnson’s bluster didn’t stand up to scrutiny: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/greece-vs-rome-with-boris-johnson-and-mary-beard/

The fact that the main “game” being played by students in American Universities is radical revolutionary communism and various shades of Marxism should be extremely worrying. Sure they might not all proceed to “burn it all down” after graduation, but their opinions and ideological convictions will shape whichever places they end up working at, including the government. In fact, they’ve already made some absolutely incredible changes to the sociopolitical fabric of the US in only a few years with the widespread adoption of things like “Diversity Equity and Inclusion” by all of the mainstream political left as well as corporate America. Or how about the widespread adoption of “Critical Race Theory” and Queer Theory and gender ideology by the US government and education system? Or how about the decades of affirmative action which has now been decided to be unconstitutional?
I’m sure the BLM (“we are trained Marxists”) riots were a “game” too.

I’ve seen that clip. My impression at the time was that the “debaters” were adopting the style of trauma victims at long last granted an opportunity to plead for justice against the thugs that had reduced their lives to shambles. That repetitive agonized hiccup/sob did it for me.

Philosopher Rebecca Goldstein has written eloquently about how Greek debate was a critical step in the foundation of science. You must make a case which persuades people who don’t agree with you, and not just pretend to convince those already in agreement. This presages both testing an hypothesis and listening to the critics — neither of which could ever be derived from whatever the hell this is.

One doesn’t have to be as Marxist kritik to grasp the game the politicians play. Nor does one have to adopt the Marxist gobbledygook.

Yes, that was industrial strength incompetence. My 75 year old hearing doesn’t help, and the microphones and room sound qualities probably weren’t the best, but gabbling, appallingly modulated, unintelligible voices do not persuade if it is impossible to follow the arguments as they are delivered, or the arguments are off topic – not that I could tell just what their arguments were.

From 41 years of teaching English, including debating, discussion skills and public speaking, to mostly 13-18 year olds, many of whom were second language speakers, I do not recall such a travesty. These youngsters have been badly misled by their teachers and judges in how to develop and deliver persuasive arguments.