We’d like to be a reference for anybody who wants to know both sides of any topic.
Every argument has two sides. A small minority of people refuse to acknowledge this, so steeped in their beliefs that recognizing the opposition is either too scary or too mind-blowing for their sad, feeble brains. Trying to argue with these people is impossible because an argument requires both parties to accept that multiple sides exist: when you’ve chosen ignorance as bliss, there’s almost no way to break down that barrier.
For the vast majority of people, arguments are a commonplace part of life. I argue daily about a wide variety of topics: Is Lebron the greatest basketball player ever? Is The Walking Dead the worst written show on television? Can a person survive eating a lone cup of blueberries for breakfast each morning? The more you know about each side, the more fully-formed your argument can become, and the more your pool of knowledge will expand.
There’s definitely one subject that remains the gold standard for arguing, the murky, shifting views of the political world. The usual course of action is attaching your name to a party (REPUBLICAN! or DEMOCRAT!), then spending the remainder of time defending your party’s stance on each issue. Some argue blindly, some informedly, but recognizing that there is an opposition is key.
Foragainst.com was created with with this purpose in mind. Instead of forcing people to visit the websites dedicated to their own political agendas, why not present a site that acknowledges both sides of a debate, presents them, and then allow the reader to decide what to do with that information? You have a brain, now go use it.
“The website stems from my frustration with the last presidential election,” Foragainst.com creator Kent Coleman told Beehive Startups in a recent interview. “You watch the news and there is such drastic bias on both sides. I just wanted to understand the issues: what is this person running on and what is this person running on? I decided if objectivity doesn’t exist, I’ll at least create something that brings both sides together, side-by-side.”
By bringing together opposing viewpoints on the same website, Coleman has created a space where people can do what they’re best at, reading about an issue from all possible angles and then using logical thought to discern what they believe. With a wide range of hot button topics (gun control, amnesty, abortion, presidential candidates, etc.) divided into two categories (For and Against), Foragainst.com is built to be read by people of any background and any belief system.
“I want to test the general idea with politics and see if we can get a little bit of traction out of it, see if people like the idea,” Coleman said.
If people do like the idea, Coleman has plans to expand into other areas, giving users the chance to arm themselves when debating about sports, tech, or a multitude of other things. In the meantime, Foragainst.com will focus strictly on politics while embracing the steadfast idea that every argument has two sides.
“We’d like to be a reference for anybody who wants to know both sides of any topic,” Coleman said.
Published 7/8/2015
