speech and debate just isnt that serious

or, im kinda sad that im done with hs debate and wanted to commemorate it somehow

hot off the heels of what will probably be my last high school debate tournament — sixth place in VLD, 3-1 — i am reminded of an old article in bari weiss’s free press bemoaning explicitly biased judges and their paradigms. this guy shows up every time hs debate blows up on twitter; last time *i* engaged in such things, it was because he posted a video of some girl spreading a marxist kritik (badly, fwiw) and people started dunking on her. here's what i had to say at the time:

i just... feel weird seeing people treat formal debate as this really important thing that teaches civic virtue, understanding both sides of an argument, moderation and tolerance, and question what experience they had or wanted to have with debate in hs. that is the furthest thing from what debate has been like for me, and the people that ive asked. at the tournament i was competing in today, my friend quipped that you dont know what you're doing if you don't finish your cases — these are the prepared arguments you read out — the night before or even the hour before the tournament (indeed, they and their partner were finishing their case as they said that). i have done exactly that for almost every single tournament that ive competed in, yet i finished my two year stint in this competition district very plausibly among the top 10 lincoln-douglas debaters.

how i did topic to topic was really hit or miss, often depending on the nature of the arguments most people ran — responding to really nitpicky, technical arguments or "metaanalysis! dozens of studies! metaanalysis!" tended to end badly. my best cases have been explicitly ideological, weaponizing a really simplistic and 101-level understanding of liberal theory to hammer people over the head with ethical arguments from a model that i explicitly constructed for the purpose of winning, no matter how douchey of a move it is. hell, the moment in a JVLD semifinal round at a major district-level tournament where, in response to being called a racist imperialist for (verrrry sloppily) arguing the garrett jones deep roots theory against open borders, i pointed at my arm and went nuh uh inspired at least one kid to start competing in LD at all. i won that round, fwiw. hs debate is a game, and you are optimizing to win for it. did your judge say they dont really care how much evidence you have so much as how you use it to advance a logical position? you know not to be anal about demanding your opponent give you every single piece of evidence they cite lest you get penalized. judge says no spreading? you are talking at 120-180 wpm and not one wpm higher. lord knows ive done terribly at adapting to judging paradigms in the past, and it's definitely cost me.

this is kinda a sidebar, but part of the strategies for the game is knowing what to sound like. lots of kids go to debate camps and come out sounding exactly the same. oh, "the affirmative world does not provide solvency for ideologically motivated scotus picks", huh? "you should prefer the negate side because we tell you that from [card]..." tell me more motherfucker, cite that evidence you know doesnt actually buttress your case but makes it sound like you know what you're talking about. like a lot of games where there's a reified strategy guide, this doesnt work if you know what you're doing — many judges have commented on my style being different and clear to follow in a way that they dont see often. this is definitely the fault of forums/reddit/twitter, but they dont need to know that. for examples, see genderthread or the draft of a longform piece against the senate. wait, where were we? right, weirdo rightoids on debate. that free press article again:

In debate, “unsafe” conversations should be encouraged, even celebrated. How better for young people from all backgrounds to bridge the divides that tear us apart, and to discover what unites them? The debate I knew taught me to think and learn and care about issues that affected people different from me.

this is not the debate i know, nor do i suspect it is the debate *he* knew. the debate i know is a sloppy, scrambled mess designed first and foremost to win. maybe this can look like good, clean, rational argumentation built around logic and evidence, but truthfully it never does. there is no Civic Education in surreptitiously looking up a statistic you werent sure was real before you said it and sending someone a link that you dont know actually backs what you said (true story!); none in willfully misrepresenting your opponent's argument under the guise of "summarizing" and "laying out" what exactly you're attacking; none in weaving a web of sophistry that everyone in the room understands is farcical at best but that you win on by default because the judge told you that's how you win. but tbh, i cant be bothered to really engage in this argument. i guess those are exactly the kinds of skills you need to get published in alt-"center" media, and by god they've done it.

idk, i still enjoyed my time in debate. fun excuse to get out of the house for a saturday and go random places. i visited asheville a couple times and, though for school rules reasons we werent allowed to just wander around the city, i saw enough of it to know it was a lovely place. honestly i might go up there and stay for a summer or two during college, but we'll see. didnt see much of richmond when i was up there either but that was a fun few days, too. maybe i can go back up this year, but april 19-20 is sort of an awkward date to do it so probably not. i just dont understand what the hype around it being so good to be understanding and tolerant of people is. you're literally trying to win an argument, there is no honor in a game where the scummiest tactics get you the win. maybe it's the federalist society's fault im sure there are plenty of awful former debate bros there. fun fact after i moved away from suburban chicago debate tournaments have been where ive seen the most indian people in one room, this last one even sold samosas lmao