If I were to define it off the top of my head, I’d say it means a mutually respectful argument.

That being said, your comment rang a bell: A couple weeks ago I stumbled across descriptive and prescriptive linguistics. I’d mostly forgotten about it, but it’s super relevant here.

The basic idea according to descriptivists is that laguage is living and a words meaning can change based on how it’s being used by native speakers as a whole. Meanwhile prescriptivists insist on rules and grammar.

Or in other words; We’re both right.

I’m using the word debate as it’s typically used to describe a mutually respectful discussion of differing opinions, wheras you’re coming from a more by the books, black and white stance.

I found this video on Youtube that ultimately posits descriptivism works better for speech, perscriptivism works better for writing. I agree, and Social media is a little bit of both.

It’s an interesting watch at around 7 minutes long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih0UqZ7O7Cg

Merriam-Webster has a decent write up on it too: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/descriptive-vs-prescriptive-defining-lexicography

It does come off a bit pointed, imo, but I found that most sources unfortunately do.