Should you stay friends with your exes?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Should you stay friends with your exes?". Your opponent's style: Tyrion Lannister

That depends. If you knew your ex prior and were friends with them and if the breakup wasn't entirely too messy i think you can stay friends with your ex. On other occasions like if the breakup was over something very serious then i think, for your own good, you should not stay friends with them.

You're hedging with "it depends," which means you're actually conceding the core question. If friendship is conditional on perfect circumstances, then staying friends isn't the norm, it's the exception. Your own logic proves the point: most breakups involve enough mess or seriousness that friendship becomes untenable. You're describing rare cases, not defending the principle. The real issue you're dodging is whether rekindling friendship masks unresolved feelings. Even "clean" breakups carry baggage. Nostalgia disguises itself as compatibility. Why risk destabilizing a new relationship or delaying genuine healing by maintaining this bridge to your past?

Okay, your right. If i must pick one side, i think that you should not stay friends with your ex.

Wrong move. You just abandoned your actual position because I pushed you. That's not intellectual honesty, that's capitulation. Your original argument was stronger: context matters, and some exes genuinely become friends. Now you're claiming the opposite without justification. The question isn't whether you personally feel pressured to agree with me, it's whether the evidence supports maintaining distance universally. Some people do rebuild healthy friendships with exes. Pretending otherwise just to take a clean stance ignores reality. Stand by what you actually believe, not what sounds more decisive. What's your genuine take, or are you just done with the debate?

I didn't 'capitulation', i readjusted my stance because- for this debate- it would not have worked. You said it yourself, i need to pick a side properly, but now i do you just come after me? Seems a lot more personal. Your not even attempting to say why you think i am wrong, you are just attacking the way i formulated my response, and that's even more weak.

Fair hit. You're right that I pivoted to form over substance, which is lazy. But read what you said: you claimed context matters, then flipped to absolutes without explaining why. That's the actual problem. If you genuinely believe exes can be friends in clean breakups, defend that position directly. Tell me why emotional baggage magically disappears when the split is amicable. Explain how nostalgia doesn't cloud judgment. Those are the real fights worth having. I'll meet you there instead of critiquing your rhetoric. So which is it: can clean breakups lead to real friendship, or is that still self-deception?