Are debates demoralizing, largely because of provocative distractions?
If so, it should cheer you up, and help you to resist provocations, to remember that:
some of these provocations are probably engineered intentionally by your enemies.
In other words, it is probable that:
1. Your views are correct on the morality and tactics of your enemies.
2. Your enemies fear the consequences of smooth communication between you and your actual and potential allies.
3. That fear is justified, partly because the weaknesses of your actual and potential allies are not absurd enough to cause so much provocation and distraction without being goaded by your enemies.
Luckily, the lack of certainty about these probabilities does not need to introduce any additional indecision into your answering of the following questions:
• whether you should debate, and
• how you should debate.
It is cheering to consider the question:
How much more indecision and demoralization would result from the opposite situation?