Introduction I fondly recall my first outround: it started 20 minutes after pairings were posted, and Millburn AW did not disclose. In response to their topical hauntological-feminist-counterfactuals K-aff, I read a disclosure shell and presented reasons why military conscription was a bad policy. Following the crushing defeat, I helped my opponent set up a wiki […]
Opinion, PF, Resources
Nina and Nate are Public Forum debate coaches for Oakwood Secondary School in Los Angeles. Between them, they have 13 years of experience judging and competing in circuit LD and PF. Varsity Public Forum circa 2021 is little different from Novice Policy, or JV LD. PF teams have found success running hackneyed “theory,” in which […]
Opinion
Underlying Bob Overing’s recent three-part disclosure epic is a single, fairness-based argument for the practice. I argue that it fails. I’ll briefly summarize the argument for those without the fortitude to make it all the way through the series. Bob begins in Part 1 with the uncontroversial premise that if something gives a debater an […]
Opinion
Introduction My name is Ariel Shin and I am a Computer Science Major at UC Davis. I have been analyzing trends in debate rounds from the national high school debate circuit in R, a programming language utilized by data analysts and statisticians, with a computer science professor, Norm Matloff. I debated four years for Immaculate […]
Community
Shrey Desai debated for four years at Saratoga High School (CA). Shrey qualified to the California State Tournament, championed Western Championships and SCU (twice), and won speaker awards at the College Prep, Stanford, and Berkeley Invitationals. He would like to thank Chris Theis, Jake Nebel, Sajeev Saluja, and Prachit Bhike for their thoughtful comments and […]
Opinion
This article consists of two parts. The first section, written by Noah Simon, is a criticism of Moral Hedging and an endorsement of Moral Confidence. The second section, written by Jack Wareham, is an endorsement of Moral Hedging and a criticism of Moral Confidence. It has been brought to our attention that ‘Epistemic Modesty’ is […]
Opinion
Ben Brazelton is a Victory Briefs Writing Fellow from Madison West High School. Opening Words When I saw this topic, I thought that the NSDA should be given a 140 character limit on their resolutions. This is, at face value, a long, complex, and very framework-driven resolution. This is unfortunate, because November has some of the largest […]
Briefly, Community, Resources
Theory is one of the most technical arguments in debate and has been on the rise in recent years throughout the LD circuit. For better or worse, it’s here to stay and theory will continue to be prevalent. Despite its surge in popularity, theory is still the “Achilles Heel” for many debaters. Especially for newcomers […]
Briefly
In debate we revere analytic philosophy in a way that we don’t tend to respect other forms of critical thought. In countless rounds I have seen debaters say that “philosophical education precludes the kritik” but there is never a discussion about what it means to be philosophical, or who counts as a philosopher. Initially this […]
Opinion
Every debater in the community should have someone to turn to at every tournament, but unfortunately, they don’t. The debate space can be hostile at times, especially when you’re traveling to an unfamiliar place with a ton of new people you don’t know, or when you’re just starting out on the circuit. This spreadsheet is […]
Community