Why Scotland's World Schools Debating Champions offer hope in intolerant times

There is, of course, a difference between being quarrelsome – something that social media demonstrates on a second-by-second basis – and making a good argument, as displayed by the newly crowned winners of this year’s World Schools Debating Championships: five young people representing Scotland. This country has now won the competition five times, level with England and behind only Australia, on nine.

Scotland team member Logan Moss said that “in spite of the polarisation and social media-based wrangling that seems to have devoured today’s world, there is still a place – among the young – for reasoned, critical discussion. This is something from which we can all benefit, and I’m honoured to say that I have.”

In a world of growing intolerance, disinformation, populist spin, AI manipulation, and ‘deep fake’ videos, in which too many people seem eager to rush to judgment and condemn, our capacity to reason, calmly and sensibly, provides an effective antidote to such social toxicity. We will always disagree, but must remember to do so agreeably.