Worthy Adversaries: The Courage To Disagree. Vance Crowe speech at Flinchbaugh Ag Policy Forum

In this episode, Vance Crowe shares a keynote delivered at the inaugural Flinchbaugh Forum for Agricultural Policy in Manhattan, Kansas, honoring Dr. Barry Flinchbaugh’s legacy of courageous, civil discourse. Vance unpacks the concept of “worthy adversaries,” explaining how respect and even resentment can guide individuals toward those who sharpen their ideas, and offers practical tools for productive disagreement: steelmanning, providing “click” moments of fascination, asking “how” instead of “why,” saying “tell me more,” and diagramming arguments to debate ideas shoulder-to-shoulder rather than person-to-person. Vance also explores how the Overton window shifts what’s thinkable and why humility and openness to change are essential for changing minds.


To test these principles, Vance presents a Peter Thiel–style paradox: Washington is correct that America needs more farmers, but mistaken in believing that printing money and transfer payments will secure that future. The argument is made that relentless monetary expansion inflates land and input costs faster than farm returns, and a provocative case is presented that Bitcoin—due to its digital scarcity—may siphon the monetary premium out of farmland over time. Vance challenges listeners to find their own worthy adversaries, articulate their own Peter Thiel paradox, and engage in courageous, curiosity-driven dialogue to keep politics rooted in conversation rather than coercion.