At national tournaments, judges are making their stances clear: students who argue ‘capitalism can reduce poverty’ or ‘Israel has a right to defend itself’ will lose—no questions asked.
I hope Incubate Debate continues to grow and is hugely successful! It is wonderful that you are providing a place for debaters and judges to actually debate with free speech. for students this is so important and much needed. Free speech should be guaranteed by the Bill of Rights! But isn’t anymore.
I debated in 2002-2003 in high school (policy debate). I did well- I was a quarter finalist and #1 speaker award. Thank God back then we didn’t have any way to know anything about the judges before the debate. There was no “looking up online”. No one has phones and there was no database. It’s better that way. They should get rid of this judge paradigm database. It’s BS. Judges should all judge equally and not based on personal nonsense.
I spread and did it well. Everyone did. The faster you talk the more arguments and evidence you can present, the More pages you can read before times up. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad I did it back then before the internet.
I was on the debate team at my university over 40 years ago. At that time, it was becoming common to see classes that were intolerant of any students challenging the political dogma of the professor. If you had to take the class, we all knew to say nothing and regurgitate the dogma. Not all classes were like this, but it was growing. The debate team was an oasis of very competitive argumentation and ideas. The goal was to win tournaments with intellectual aggression, mastery of facts, and quick thinking. Our coach was one of the most liberal professors on campus, and to his great credit, he fostered teamwork and rigorous intellectual discipline on the team. Most of my success in professional life is due to the skills and discipline I learned on the debate team. But now, this is such weak-kneed, anti-intellectual, anti-rational garbage. Higher education's embrace of trendy dogma and the sidelining of competitive rational argumentation and debate will do great damage to many students. Building new tournaments is the only solution.
What was it Chesterston said…? Something like… “Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” Closed-mindedness should never sit as “judge.” I’m glad you are exploring a new debate league! Necessity is truly the mother of invention!
This type of coercive, cult-like speech conformity (dubbed by some as "the Woke mind virus") is not limited to high school debate teams. It's very prevalent in academia (including medical education and training) where students are made to "step in line" and "avoid discussing certain topics" in order to stay in the good graces of their supervisors/community/instructors, who hold power over their future career trajectory.
Rules for debates should not come from anyone connected to education or wokeism. The best judges will come from the public upholding no particular ideology.
As I read each sentence of this piece I grew evermore ill. Someone elsewhere in the comments asked: "Have we lost our minds?" Clearly, we have. So, we need to ask ourselves how have _we_ allowed it to happen, and do we have the courage and moral fortitude to arrest this decline?
I guess the real question is what NSDA is doing about the problem. If all they’re doing is telling judges what to do, they’re useless. Unless they overrule judges who allow their biases to determine their votes, what good is the organization? It is actually harming students. Literally harming them: students inherently see adults as above them in hierarchies. If one of them is harassing them, there is an innate tendency to see themselves as undeserving. It takes an exceptionally strong willed kid to override that kind of feedback.
Do that enough to most kids and the student is crippled, broken.
How to get around it? Monitor random debates, particularly those being judged by self-confessed biased judges. Override unfair judgments. And remove those judges from the organization. Not complicated.
I fear that University Austin will disappoint, as they are seeking accreditation, the tool used to enforce conformity. Ralston under (or perhaps despite) Jordan Peterson may go the same route, under Georgia law. It has nothing to do with debate (tho I sometimes judge debates) but we founded Mount Liberty College (q.v. mountlibertycollege.org) intentionally outside the accreditation paradigm.
Excellent though horrifying article. Thank you so much for starting this organization! I hope you expand beyond Florida or that someone starts something similar over here in Arizona by the time my kids are in high school!
To the extent that debate is a part of the education industry, this is no surprise. Primary and Secondary Ed, undergraduate education, Medicine, law, psychology and counselling, all areas of humanities and social science, and increasingly the hard sciences, have succumbed to the new dispensation.
Where we are going to wind up, who can say? But it does strike me that the world is a competitive and unforgiving place and that in such an environment, the worst thing to be is stupid. And we are rapidly becoming collectively unable to think or even recognize simple reality. This will not end well for us.
I hope Incubate Debate continues to grow and is hugely successful! It is wonderful that you are providing a place for debaters and judges to actually debate with free speech. for students this is so important and much needed. Free speech should be guaranteed by the Bill of Rights! But isn’t anymore.
I debated in 2002-2003 in high school (policy debate). I did well- I was a quarter finalist and #1 speaker award. Thank God back then we didn’t have any way to know anything about the judges before the debate. There was no “looking up online”. No one has phones and there was no database. It’s better that way. They should get rid of this judge paradigm database. It’s BS. Judges should all judge equally and not based on personal nonsense.
I spread and did it well. Everyone did. The faster you talk the more arguments and evidence you can present, the More pages you can read before times up. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad I did it back then before the internet.
And we thought the Taliban was barbaric for tearing down ancient statues and art. Who's in charge here?
I was on the debate team at my university over 40 years ago. At that time, it was becoming common to see classes that were intolerant of any students challenging the political dogma of the professor. If you had to take the class, we all knew to say nothing and regurgitate the dogma. Not all classes were like this, but it was growing. The debate team was an oasis of very competitive argumentation and ideas. The goal was to win tournaments with intellectual aggression, mastery of facts, and quick thinking. Our coach was one of the most liberal professors on campus, and to his great credit, he fostered teamwork and rigorous intellectual discipline on the team. Most of my success in professional life is due to the skills and discipline I learned on the debate team. But now, this is such weak-kneed, anti-intellectual, anti-rational garbage. Higher education's embrace of trendy dogma and the sidelining of competitive rational argumentation and debate will do great damage to many students. Building new tournaments is the only solution.
This is a great piece! Also a good way to "Show don't tell" how the Left's ideological capture is harming this country.
What was it Chesterston said…? Something like… “Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” Closed-mindedness should never sit as “judge.” I’m glad you are exploring a new debate league! Necessity is truly the mother of invention!
This type of coercive, cult-like speech conformity (dubbed by some as "the Woke mind virus") is not limited to high school debate teams. It's very prevalent in academia (including medical education and training) where students are made to "step in line" and "avoid discussing certain topics" in order to stay in the good graces of their supervisors/community/instructors, who hold power over their future career trajectory.
sounds like a very old house with lots of leaks.....rot and mildew hidden everywhere
God damn all illiberal Democrat fuckers. I'm so tired of this shit.
I'm sorry but Lila Lavender sounds like the name of a porn star.
Rules for debates should not come from anyone connected to education or wokeism. The best judges will come from the public upholding no particular ideology.
Educators are very much part of the problem.
As I read each sentence of this piece I grew evermore ill. Someone elsewhere in the comments asked: "Have we lost our minds?" Clearly, we have. So, we need to ask ourselves how have _we_ allowed it to happen, and do we have the courage and moral fortitude to arrest this decline?
I guess the real question is what NSDA is doing about the problem. If all they’re doing is telling judges what to do, they’re useless. Unless they overrule judges who allow their biases to determine their votes, what good is the organization? It is actually harming students. Literally harming them: students inherently see adults as above them in hierarchies. If one of them is harassing them, there is an innate tendency to see themselves as undeserving. It takes an exceptionally strong willed kid to override that kind of feedback.
Do that enough to most kids and the student is crippled, broken.
How to get around it? Monitor random debates, particularly those being judged by self-confessed biased judges. Override unfair judgments. And remove those judges from the organization. Not complicated.
I fear that University Austin will disappoint, as they are seeking accreditation, the tool used to enforce conformity. Ralston under (or perhaps despite) Jordan Peterson may go the same route, under Georgia law. It has nothing to do with debate (tho I sometimes judge debates) but we founded Mount Liberty College (q.v. mountlibertycollege.org) intentionally outside the accreditation paradigm.
Excellent though horrifying article. Thank you so much for starting this organization! I hope you expand beyond Florida or that someone starts something similar over here in Arizona by the time my kids are in high school!
Superb. Amen. I hope Incubate grows into the premier HS debate arena. That ideas and thought can deeply “injure” and be punitive is beyond sad.
To the extent that debate is a part of the education industry, this is no surprise. Primary and Secondary Ed, undergraduate education, Medicine, law, psychology and counselling, all areas of humanities and social science, and increasingly the hard sciences, have succumbed to the new dispensation.
Where we are going to wind up, who can say? But it does strike me that the world is a competitive and unforgiving place and that in such an environment, the worst thing to be is stupid. And we are rapidly becoming collectively unable to think or even recognize simple reality. This will not end well for us.