re: "In debate defensiveness, rhetoric, disingenuousness and concealment is de rigeur and truthfulness optional."
Since we seem to be headed down a semantic rabbithole, let's at least do it properly. The quote above is entirely untrue. Debates are, as the follow-on jpg noted, more formal and are structured such that the positions being debated are clearly opposed while discussions are more free-flowing and sometimes suffer from group-think (that is, inappropriate or premature consensus). But truth is non-optional in both a debate and a discussion.
Only in the context of political campaigns are "debates" as you describe.
Mike Rossander
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