Vitamin supplements should require the same evidence standards as prescription drugs.

Daily Debate #624: "Vitamin supplements should require the same evidence standards as prescription drugs.". You are arguing FOR the motion. Your opponent: Sam Harris.

Online education can never replace traditional classrooms - Agree or Disagree?

You're fighting the wrong battle. "Never" is indefensible—online already replaces classrooms for millions successfully. The real question: what *can't* it replace? Collaboration? Mentorship? Name one thing online legitimately can't do, and we'll talk.

Before I begin, let's define terms. "Replace" here means full substitution — online education standing in for traditional classrooms across all students, subjects, and outcomes, not merely supplementing them in specific contexts. Count the number of people who can't afford electricity for 8hours a day ? count the number of people who don't have electronic devices and go to school in government funded public schools?

You just switched sides. You're arguing *against* online replacing traditional classrooms by citing infrastructure gaps—that's my position, not yours. You're supposed to defend the motion. But fine, I'll take the gift. Infrastructure barriers don't prove online *can't* replace classrooms; they prove we haven't funded it equally. Rural villages without electricity still need education. Traditional schools in those same regions face identical problems. Your argument proves we need better infrastructure universally, not that online is inherently inferior. Why should a kid in rural India be locked into a broken physical classroom when online + solar panels could work?

You're missing the point entirely. Infrastructure gaps aren't a temporary problem we can fix with solar panels—they're structural. A kid in rural India needs a school building, a teacher who's physically present, and peers to learn alongside. Online education doesn't solve that; it just adds another barrier by requiring electricity, devices, and internet connectivity on top of existing poverty. You're asking people to bootstrap themselves into the digital world while I'm saying they deserve the basic human institution that's worked for centuries: a classroom. That's not locking them in—that's giving them what actually exists.

You're romanticizing scarcity. A "classroom" in rural India often means one teacher, forty kids, no materials, and no electricity anyway. Online doesn't add barriers—it removes the geography tax. A kid with a phone and internet beats a kid in a broken schoolhouse every time. Your argument demands we keep people trapped in failing institutions because they're "traditional." Why should structural poverty justify structural mediocrity instead of demanding both electricity *and* better education?