The Great american debate

All of the arguments all in one place

America’s social and political issues are insanely complex. Arguments are happening on television, in books, in the halls of congress, in classrooms, and on social media - but what if someone did the work of combining all debates into one? Finally, a one-stop shop for all the arguments, ideas, and evidence coming from every point of view. It’s the uncensored, unbiased, all-inclusive, big picture. Support us now.

Created by a consortium of debate and democracy geeks.

Current topic: climate change (usa)

GOT FIVE MINUTES TO VOLUNTEER?

We get it, not everyone can put down everything and work for their whole lives to change the world for the better, but if you can take the time to be a **5 minute volunteer with us**, you can actually give the cause a big boost!
🖇Be a 5-min volunteer by completing these tasks.
🛠 Be a 10-min volunteer by completing these tasks.
⚔️ Be a 15-min volunteer by completing these tasks.
Got more than 15 min to spare? Write to us about joining us for weekly work!
**P.S.** Learn More about the mission! 🔭

Our Partners

Our partners make the Great American Debate possible. Whether they are financially supporting the team or lending their tech, this mission is only possible due to the teamwork, leadership, and talent of those involved. If you would like to join the team, or explore sponsorship options, check out our partners page and write to us!

Our Work

The Great American Debate is a non-partisan effort put on by a consortium of debate technology groups working to make American democracy more robust and online communications more productive, clear, and educational through new forms or media and new big data infrastructure for the public.

1

subject

There is a persistent debate about climate change in the United States. There are debates over: what climate change is, if it’s happening, who or what is the cause, is it a threat, and if so - what could or should we do about it?

12+

Forms of media

We extract arguments, claims, and evidence from: Television, podcasts, websites, various social media platforms, documentaries and videos, books, textbooks, government documents, scholarly articles, news platforms, classrooms materials, and more.

270+

topics of debate

The debate about climate change is complex . We’ve identified over 220 sub-debates being discussed in the United States so far.

Our Strategies

We’re pulling together debate tech, debate platforms, and digital democracy organizations’ works to collaborate on the Great American Debate. By bringing together existing content and new tools to help scrape, sort, and analyze, we can create an entirely new way of engaging in debate - nationwide.

Argument - mining

One of the limitations of human-to-human debates is the limited amount of information that can be referenced, presented, and explored in conversation. One of the challenges of sourcing arguments from the internet - is that there are so many arguments! Using argument mining technology, we’ll be working through massive amounts of content to pull out arguments and make sure all sides are represented.

logic-based content analysis

The study of logic is as old as Athenian democracy, and yet we hardly see logical fallacies called out in political debates today. As a part of the analysis performed by the Great American Debate, all arguments will be scanned for their logical merit and presented to the public. We’re working to set new standards for public discourse, and it’s about time we use all the tools we have to distinguish what’s logical and what’s fallacious reasoning.

“

november 2017

Technology like social media, rabbit holes of fake news, and the algorithmic underpinnings of search engines may have helped silo us into political tribes, but technology can be wielded just as effectively to bring us together again.

Mission Page / Read Post

Get Involved

Host a livestream event

Once we’ve mapped out the Climate Change debate, we’re going to take the public on a tour of the interface through a livestream presentation. If you’d like to host one, contact us!

Volunteer opportunities

There is so much work to be done, and even if you have just the most basic digital literacy skills (I mean you’re on the website, after all) we could use your help!

Volunteer Now

Make a Donation

We’re a project of a 501(c)3 non-profit, non-partisan organization - the Benjamin Franklin Society Library, which DBAs as the Society Library. We’re mostly volunteer! Please consider making a donation to support the cause!

Donate