Excerpt from video Thunder-Round-Thursday #237 - 60 Topics in one Video by popular debate channel JJJustice (JayJayJustice). Normally famous for its 4-7-hour single-topic long-form debates with 3 to 15 people, Thursdays are used as a Palette cleanser with a reverse of the usual formula. Ads are sprinkled in after every 3 debates. Fans get to vote on who won each debate, and the winners are guaranteed to be invited to a future long-form debate.

"And welcome back, folks. That was debate number six for today, now we can move on to lucky number seven. The topic of this round is 'Utopia - True to its name or not?'. Our contestants are Mitch Micheals, also known as CausalityCentral, Video Essayist, first-time debater, and Utopia-critical. Welcome to the show."

The host is situated in a smaller box at the top, while the two debaters each take up one side of the screen.

"Thanks, J-man. I'm pumped."

"Me too, Mitch, me too. On the other side, we have Ricky Hernandez, also known as LifeInUtopia, video blogger, frequent debater, and lifetime resident of Utopia. Welcome to the snow, Ricky."

"Thank you, Jim. Glad to be back."

"Both of you should be familiar with the format. You both get 3 minutes for your opening statements and afterwards, we have a maximum of 10 minutes for open discussion. After the time is up, no matter where the conversation was at, we stop and move on to the next two. Alright, without further ado, Mitch. Your time starts now."

"Wonderful. In the spirit of the show, I'll keep my opener short and sweet. Utopia bills itself as the most perfect place on earth, but it is anything but. From their concerning tendency of Hero worship that puts even America to shame, to their - what can only very charitably be called - elections, and their flagrant disregard for the lives of anyone who isn't a one hundred percent perfect law-abiding citizen, I claim that they should rename themselves to Dystopia because when you use such a pompous and loaded term to describe yourself, you might as well be honest about it. That's it from me."

"Thank you, Mitch. Ricky?"

"I think to understand the Utopian mindset, you have to understand Utopian history. I live in our beautiful capital, Africa City. As some of you might know, that was the original name of our country. Or more specifically the continent. Back then we had a bunch of different countries, but that's beside the point. If you look at Africa's history, you will see that, just like in many other parts of the world back then, armed conflict was commonplace. Civil wars, religious disputes, you have it. Africa in particular had troubles with warlords of different factions terrorizing the populace. Children being kidnapped as child soldiers and forced to kill their mothers to prove their loyalty. Rape, and torture, whatever atrocity you can imagine, it happened."

The host cringes visibly.

"I know, Jim. I'm sorry, but I think putting things into perspective is very important here. Of course, not every part of Africa was like this. There were many perfectly safe places, it is a big continent after all. But a not-insignificant portion of it had to deal with these problems.

"And that excuses..."

"Please, let me finish. I'm getting to that. Like I said that was the gist of the situation. And you can imagine how it only got worse when Powers and Magic began manifesting for the first time. You may think modern black capes are disgusting, cruel freaks, but not a single one of them has anything on the warlords and dictators of old when they got their hands on real Power. And yes, in those situations, to stop people like that, pretty much any means can be excused.

Ricky takes a sip of water. Mitch opens his mouth to speak, but Ricky lifts his finger to signal him to wait. After he is done, he continues.

"I don't know if you are aware, but Utopianism is not an original African philosophy. Many think it's the brainchild of Gundo Le Roux, better known as Utopian, the first Sentinel of the state, but it is, In fact, Mexican in origin. The emergence of Powers paved the way for even more brutal and insidious cartels, and the peacekeepers of the time needed a way to deal with it. If any of the audience is interested in the foundational pillars of our great nation, I recommend reading, or at least listening to, Utopia Rising. That is the book that inspired Le Roux in the first place."

He puts down his phone, from which he was reading his script.

"Now I want you to compare and contrast modern-day Mexico with Utopia. In one the cartels are still pretty much in control, villainy is rampant like in most of the developed world, and the Heroes do not have the authority nor the means to do anything about it. The other is the safest place on Mother Earth. What is the difference between the two? Easy, in the former Utopianism was curbed before it could spread, in the latter it's national policy. That's it for my opening statement, thank you."

"Thank you, Ricky. Now it's time for open debate. Your mics will be cut and you'll be kicked from the chat in exactly ten minutes from.......now!"

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"You sure blabber a lot but you didn't really convey anything of substance. Oh yeah, dealing with maniacs is difficult, it sucks, but that is no excuse to just kill anyone who commits a crime more serious than jaywalking. That's classic ends-justifies-the-means bullshit."

"As usual with anti-Utopianists, you blow everything severely out of proportion. Utopian Heroes have license to kill, yes, but not for every old crime. The question is always 'How much harm will this individual cause?', 'Are they planning to kill somebody?', 'Not kill, but hurt a large number of people?', 'Are they not aiming to kill, but their actions will result in death anyway?' In cases like these, the net-positive action that causes the least amount of harm and suffering for everyone is to take that person out of the picture. And before you come with the 'But what if...' bullshit. We aren't a species of robots. We don't have rigid black-and-white guidelines. Every situation is evaluated in the moment. Even if one of the previously mentioned circumstances comes to pass, what if the perpetrator is being blackmailed to do it? What if they are in a uniquely shifty situation and are unlikely to re-offend if taken alive? In those cases, they will most likely be just apprehended. We make sure to take extenuating circumstances into account."

"Oh, and who makes those value judgments?"

"The Heroes on the scene of course."

Mitch laughs.

"Of course. Why not let adrenaline junkies in tight spandex decide over life and death. You fully convinced me. That sounds like a great idea."

Ricky sighs in response.

"The lack of respect you have for your Heroes is a bit off-putting, but I guess it makes sense. If your Heroes as they are now had the authority of Utopian Heroes, then there would be chaos in the streets, I'm sure. But it doesn't have to be that way. How does someone get to be a Hero in America?"

"I'm not an expert myself, but I think you shadow an actual Hero for three years or so, maybe two? Then you take a certification test at the end, and then you're golden. You can speed this up massively by going to a Hero School though, I'm pretty sure."

"And there's the rub. Your Heroes are just regular civilians. To become a Hero in Utopia you have to complete military service. Full training, boot camps, and the like. They get taught specifically how to evaluate these kinds of situations. And our military training is notoriously strict and rigorous. They are more than qualified to make these decisions when they are done with it."

"I'd argue no amount of training qualifies someone to make judgments like those outside of wartime, but if we get into that we'll never get to the other topics."

"That's true. Let me choose the next. I find it very funny how you deride Utopia for its 'brutality', but meanwhile in America, you have Villains running around all over the place. We are the only country in the world without temperature gangs, one of the few without a Freakshow tent, even the BHF is barely present on our shores. These people run your world. How is that in any way better than what we have?"

"What's really funny is how you accuse me of blowing things out of proportion and then say Villains run America. Yes, we have a problem with Villains, but at least these people feel safe enough to dress up in silly costumes and do their shit out in the open. You people always love to throw around your low crime rate, but that is only because most of your crime happens in back rooms behind closed doors. What were the last few headlines regarding crime in Utopia? 'Queen Snake slithers undercover and busts Human Trafficking Ring', 'Time-Eater takes a bite out of illegal magitech-trade', and of course 'Anansi and Uttu catch 121 pedophiles in their web during latest sting'. Same shit as everywhere else."

"Same shi...? My friend, last I checked we don't have a group of cannibals running about eating our rich in Utopia. In New York you have a clown that makes people laugh themselves to death, followed around by an animal tamer that attacks people with a dead re-animated tiger. We have none of that crap in Utopia. Yes, there is still some crime, we will never have a world without crime, but we are doing a hell of a lot better than the rest of the world."

"Right. That's why you have four times the amount of civilians killed by Heroes than any other country. So much better."

"This again....Look, if a child trafficker holds a few kids hostage, and he's going g to get away if you don't do whatever it takes to stop him, then I'd say not doing that is the morally reprehensible thing to do, even if you might kill the hostages. What sounds better to you? 'Oh great, you let the perpetrator go and saved ten kids, now a hundred more are going to be kidnapped and sold because of your inaction. Great job, boss.', or 'Hey, you did what you had to. The guy is dead. 6 of the hostages tragically died, but you not only saved four, you also prevented a hundred more children from being victimized in the future, Great job, boss.' I think the answer is clear. And the relatives of the dead civilians get a hefty compensation."

" Oh, I'm sure that totally makes up for the loss of their loved one. Makes me want to grab my family and move over immediately."

"It doesn't make up for the loss, but it helps in overcoming it. And you joke, but despite what you said, we are growing every year. Do you know why the country isn't called 'The African Utopia' anymore? It was for a half a century. It's because the original native Africans only make up about 19% of the population anymore. Still the largest group, but it was clear that the Utopia of today has its own, very much separate identity. And why is that? Because people want to live here. They want to live somewhere where it's safe. Where you can go out at night no matter where you are. Where you can actually look up to the people who run the country and know they have your best interest at heart. If Utopia was so terrible, people would try to leave en masse, not immigrate."

"It's interesting that you brought up your government because I was about to do so too. In my opening statement, I touched on your elections. Or 'elections'."

"Very mature."

"As mature as this topic deserves. I think anyone watching at home knows what this is?"

Mitch pulls out his phone and points the screen at the camera.

"The My Hero app. Let's you rate and review Heroes. It's a neat thing. Utopia has it too. In fact, it comes from Utopia. But unlike here, their version is very much official. That's right, the Hero who ranks Number 1 on this app......a fucking rating app, every five years becomes the new President, or I guess 'Sentinel', of the country. I know our election system has its flaws, but this is just asinine. There is no way to defend this, but I'd like to see you try."

"As usual, our critics are grossly misinformed about even the most basic of things."

"Am I now? Enlighten me then."

"That's why I'm here. Yes, the My Hero app is used to determine our elections. But it's a bit more complicated than that. First off, since our version is official as you said, you can't make an account. You get one automatically once you turn 18. Log-in is done solely via fingerprint recognition, and each account is directly tied to your Citizen-ID. This, and a few additional classified measures, make this app pretty much the safest and most secure way to vote in the modern world. Next, to become eligible for office you have to opt-in as a Hero. Heroes have their own profiles, of course, and they can register for whatever race they are interested in, so it's not like someone with no interest in politics is going to become Sentinel or Guardian....that'd be a local Mayor in your words, I think....just because they happen to be popular."

"That still doesn't..."

"I'm not finished yet. Next, we aren't a pure democracy, Your elections are more of a popularity contest than ours are. The Utopian My Hero rank does not just take ratings into account. Your rank is determined by ratings, the overall satisfaction level of whatever area you are working in as a Hero, the number and quality-of-resolution of your engagements, which also includes whatever duties your police have as our Heroes do those jobs too, and how well you have done at your yearly re-evaluations, because our Heroes, unlike yours, have to prove every year that they are still fit to wear the cape."

"You act as if Heroes here never have to renew their license. You try to paint all o..."

Both contestants disappear from the screen.

"And those were ten minutes. Who won? The poll is now open. Topic number seven is done, let's move right along to eight. 'EATR - Horribly evil Villains or Heroes in disguise?' Contestant number one is...."