Calvinball, a useful term
Calvin invents Calvinball because he’s frustrated with organized sports, which he keeps losing. Practitioners of Rhetorical Calvinball often have similar motivations. They’re not getting what they want out of rational debate, so they’ve decided to abandon its rules.
It would be churlish to dismiss the anger that motivates this rejection. For centuries, democracies have prided themselves on their ability to conduct rational debate. And yet, they are still shaped by serious ethnic, religious and economic injustices. Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that many of those who most passionately care about remedying those injustices are willing to swap the traditional rules of liberal discourse for a game of Rhetorical Calvinball.
But the rules of rational debate are there for a reason. They are tools for reaching agreement and uncovering the truth. And for all of the legitimate frustrations over the deep injustices of contemporary democracies, it is often these very rules which have allowed the poor and oppressed to force those with greater power and privilege to give them a hearing. Giving up on these rules is not only bad because they are needed for rational debate; it is bad because those who build a world of make-believe will fail to remedy the injustices that incense them.