I never paid much attention to his debates, but from what little snippets I’ve seen, along with the “Prove Me Wrong” schtick seems to indicate he already decided he was right and others were wrong.
There’s plenty of rhetoric and memes already, I’d like to avoid more rhetoric and memes, and I ask this question with genuine curiosity and earnest desire for learning and understanding.
This is the root of the problem, isn’t it? When someone proves you wrong, and you persist despite evidence to the contrary, that’s pretty stupid, right? This high school debate sophistry that Kirk and his contemporaries engage in isn’t a good faith discussion and most of his audience isn’t equipped with the critical thinking skills to understand that.
This is the biggest crux. I found people also don’t realize that clips are either staged or handpicked.
The people asking questions are often fans lobbing questions they know fit the narrative. Like the tiktoker who streamed immediately and apparently stole merch from the booth: they were a fan and in line.