I well remember a high school debate in Civics class. In high school I was a hard core conservative. My civics teacher assigned me the role of Marxist advocate. As an exercise in debate I eagerly took the assignment. I crushed the conservative side of the debate. They were ill prepared. If they were prepared with knowledge they would have destroyed my logic.
After the debate a couple of my friends asked me “if I was a communist?” I then knew I had done well in the debate. I told them “hell no, I am working for the Barry Goldwater campaign. This was just a debate.”
That was me in high school and beyond, too.
You must know how to address all opposing views to your core beliefs. It takes time, but you must stand or you will fall.
I get the greatest adrenaline boost from every such opportunity. The more people I can challenge and debate in front of, the better.
I forgot to add this about the debate. This was not just a one off thing in class. My most learned civics teacher assigned this project and we went to the high school library and the local college to study the basics behind the logic.
I studied well, I destroyed the opposing side though my side was Marxism that I was totally against. My opponents in debate were on the side of good. They did not research properly and thus were helpless in debate.
Our civics teacher was not an insane liberal. He had the wisdom to make students debate and make them debate positions that he knew were philosophically opposed to their personal beliefs. It was actually quite brilliant.