[naravara]

Talented debaters are not necessarily honest or knowledgable in their fields.

In fact, being too honest or too nerdy is often a disadvantage. There’s a reason cases on technical matters in courts still get argued my litigators with subject-matter experts as witnesses, not by the SMEs themselves.

[fwungy]

However they do it, if you look like you're avoiding questions people aren't going to trust you.

[naravara]

JAQing off is a strategy for discrediting expertise by inundating with nonsense questions and accusations disguised as questions. There's no good solution for dealing with bad faith shit-stirring, but dignifying every bit of nonsense with a response isn't going to work.

[fwungy]

I'm not saying you need to let Alex Jones on.

There were people asking questions who were MDs and PhDs with good records that could have been used.

Refusing to take any adversarial questions also leads to discrediting by the public. The refusal by Fauci and Birx to do so almost definitely caused a needless loss of life. Leaders show competence and rise to challenges. When people see that they're willing to follow.