‘The original ‘debate me’ troll’: Washington Post op-ed smears Socrates

“A call to debate may seem intellectual, even civilized,” she continued. “In theory, well-structured and respectful debates are an ideal opportunity to reach an audience that isn’t fixed in its views. In reality, however, most ‘debate me’ types seem to view them mainly as a chance to attack their opponent’s credibility,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Their model is not Lincoln and Douglas, but rather Socrates: By needling their interlocutors with rapid-fire questions, they aim to reveal, as they see it, their opponents’ ignorance and stupidity, and their own superior intelligence and logic.”

Zuckerberg later distilled her opinion, writing, “My actual, nuanced argument is that the long enmeshment of the classics and white supremacy, both in Nazi Germany and in the pre-Civil War American South, continues to inform how we understand the ancient Mediterranean, and that progressive classical scholars should discuss that legacy and confront it.”

Zuckerberg, who has written a book about “classics and misogyny in the digital age,” further claimed that modern-day right-wing personalities view the father of Western philosophy as “the original ‘debate me’ troll.”

“Platonic texts show Socrates pulling any number of Athenians into debates, and although some are eager to argue with him, others can hardly wait to escape him by the end of the dialogue. Plato’s ‘Euthyphro’ concludes with Euthyphro insisting that he has to leave, while Socrates calls after him, complaining that they haven’t yet figured out the nature of piety. Many of the dialogues end when the interlocutor has been bludgeoned into submission and seems to find it easier to agree with Socrates than continue further — every ‘debate me’ man’s dream.”

In an October 2018 op-ed for Medium, Zuckerberg laid down a similar line of argument, writing, “By turning frequently to authors such as Marcus Aurelius and Ovid, [elements of the alt-right] attempt to perpetuate the idea that white men are the guardians of intellectual authority, especially when such authority is perceived to be under threat from women and people of color.”

Zuckerberg’s op-ed drew some criticism for using contemporary politics to condemn Socrates, who was executed by the Athenians in 399 B.C. for allegedly corrupting the youth of the city.

Zuckerberg’s op-ed appeared in the Washington Post the same day as another op-ed that argued when conservatives say “we’ve abandoned reason and civility,” they are echoing “the Old South” and their “language to defend slavery.”