I agree; the video in the comment above yours was edited specifically to focus hate on a couple of high school students.

While I have to admit I'm not a fan of that debate style, if you want to know the context behind it, there's an episode of Radiolab on the topic: https://radiolab.org/episodes/debatable

The short version is that it seems to have been a response and rebellion to what was already an arguably ridiculous style of competitive "debating": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FPsEwWT6K0

Yeah so it was essentially satire.

You'd think that in a community of "hackers" that should value actual skepticism and subversion that people wouldn't fall so easily for obvious propaganda.

Whether those particular debaters were rebelling, satirizing, or simply following the rules, it remains true that fast debating (AKA spreading [1]) is a "ridiculous style of competitive 'debating'".

You know that wasn't why it was shared here, and it was deliberately edited to push people towards a completely different conclusion.