High-school debate

Does anybody here do it?

Whatcha gonna do, little buckaroo? | i be pimpin' madoka fics

I have, before.

Meh.

I take it you were unimpressed. Which debate did you do?

Whatcha gonna do, little buckaroo? | i be pimpin' madoka fics

Nothing regular, but we had them as activities in some social science classes. It was pretty much people saying facts at each other and not doing much convincing.

Although there was that one time someone said "Obama relies on rhetoric too much... like HITLER" and then someone responded "Well Hitler got things done!"

Wrong type of debate.

Has anybody here ever done the "official" high-school debate? NFL resolutions? League/circuit tournaments?

Whatcha gonna do, little buckaroo? | i be pimpin' madoka fics

Nothing to formal but we do have debates in law class. Always fun.

Is using "Julian Assange is a Hillary butt plug" an acceptable signature quote?

I took a 'Speech and Debate' class, but the teacher didn't even like doing debates. So I barely ever got to do it.

Lame.

My other signature is a Gundam.

We did a debate in my high school in grade 10. What do I remember about it? The other two people in my team slacked off and I did most of the work.

What I really hated was when I found myself arguing on the side of the debate I disagreed with. I found that difficult.

Be not afraid...

I have done "Speech and Debate" class and have been in debate.

Debate is like Student Congress but there's a lot more to do.

I did the British version. Most successful debater my school had ever had, given I equalled the furthest anyone had made it in a competition - three times, one being my first ever competition. Quite impressed with that, but then I am a natural born terrifying orator (to the point where I almost always lost a few points for barracking opponents, but gained more because in so doing I utterly tore my opponents to shreds. The instruction we were given to always call a Point of Information the second the bell for the end of the first minute went, so as to completely throw your opponent off his game and while being entirely trained to deal with such tricks ourselves, really helped. Except for the time we were in a round-house debate and I accidentally called a Point of Information against my own team mate...

My name is Addy. Please call me that instead of my username.

I have no idea how the UK does things. I'm guessing you were doing a more oratorically-focused event, seeing how being a good public speaker will do jack squat for you unless you're in league (parent-judged, not national level.) Though there is plenty of ripping apart here in the states as well, especially in Policy debate. Personally, I do Lincoln-Douglas, which is a bit less intense. Policy can get very heated (though it is still amusing that even when Policy debaters turn up the intensity on topics such as global thermonuclear war they still refrain from directly insulting each other. The internet could take a hint.)

^^^ That's the fun part. It is also the most educational part. I believe that, in order to fully understand any subject, you have to debate both sides.

@7- that...kinda sucks.

Whatcha gonna do, little buckaroo? | i be pimpin' madoka fics

Was on the debate team for exactly a week, got kicked out for calling my opponent delusional.

easy come, easy go.

I spread my wings and I learn how to fly....

If oratory counts for nothing, why not simply make it an essay competition?

I don't see the point of speaking the words aloud if the way you speak the words aloud adds nothing to the text.

Yes.

NAUDL, Chicago Debate League, AA, Varsity, Cross-Ex debate.

I denied the holocaust in front of a Jewish Judge (and Polish girl) and pretended to be a white nationalist saying nuke Africa in my last year.

edited 23rd Dec '10 10:15:54 AM by BalloonFleet

WHASSUP....... ....with lolis!

^ I would love to be in that club. I liked to be the Devil's advocate in debates. "Everybody thought that nuking Japan was wrong? Well, I think it was the right action to take!"

edited 23rd Dec '10 10:28:12 AM by ariesku

Horseman of War: "War never changes? F*** you! You don't know me!"

Considering how many people think it was the right action, I don't think it would be that difficult.

Fight smart, not fair.

^^^ I don't even know what to say.

^^^^ You have to speak quickly.

^^^^^ That's...actually not that bad. The only price you would pay at my school is getting ridiculed during the debate.

Whatcha gonna do, little buckaroo? | i be pimpin' madoka fics

We didn't have an official debate team in high school, though I liked to pester a friend of mine for debates because I considered her my intellectual equal.

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

I had an anhoc at my school. the up shot was that we could rise the hard hitting issue such as war and child abuse. The downside was that we ended up just goofing off for half an hour.

edited 26th Dec '10 2:57:48 AM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid

Sounds like something I'd do.

My other signature is a Gundam.

Funny thing is that I'm actually not bad at RL debating.

Why? Because I am very. very. very. loud. Something that doesn't translate into a useful skill online.

I spread my wings and I learn how to fly....

The louder your opponent becomes, the more you know they're losing.

My other signature is a Gundam.

Says you.

I was in only four formal debates, but I won three of them.

This was done largely by being loud (as I mentioned) and implying very unsubtly that the other person was stupid.

Of course, I don't know how normal that is. My high school is in da backwudz, you see, and we only ever went up against people from the same area. Maybe my experience would've been different if I'd stayed on longer.

edited 24th Dec '10 4:26:06 PM by SpainSun

I spread my wings and I learn how to fly....

I was in debate back in high school, and it was alright. There were two types, Policy and Lincoln-Douglas debate.

Policy is two sides on an issue, everything is about laws and results and whatnot. You have to prepare a case for (affirmative) and against (negative) a certain law or resolution. Almost all the work was done beforehand, in the form of your opening case and premade "spam" cards that would be read off as generic responses to certain points, as quickly as possible  ^*

. And I mean quickly, as in "an entire goddamn page in a minute or less." Policy is done in pairs with opening case given, rebuttal, rebuttal, and closing for each side. As was mentioned before, the most important piece was speed, because the argument made was that anything not refuted was inherently accepted by the opposition, and therefore I win.

Lincoln-Douglas, on the other hand, was all about morals and values, and relied a lot more on on-the-spot refutations/rebuttals/counters. You'd have to prepare an affirmative or negative paper on the morals of a certain proposition, and then defend it/tear theirs down in the subsequent rebuttals. Lincoln-Douglas was done solo.

Me personally, I did LD, and I was alright. I really enjoyed the actual debates but never put enough time into my cases (i.e. prep work). The judges were always kind of dumb though, one time I pointed out that the objections raised in my opponents negative case didn't apply to my particular affirmative case, and that it could be almost entirely disregarded (as a summary point). My opponent seized on this and insisted that if their case was to be disregarded, so was mine. The review I received stated that I won, but the judge had difficulty deciding who won after both the cases had been dropped.

facepalm

Look, you can't make me speak in a logical, coherent, intelligent bananna.

Every policy resolution can be linked to nuclear war. No exceptions. Just pull a hegemony or politics link.

As it turns out, present-day California is having a very progressive LD program (or at least, my school is, but from what I've seen and heard in travel debates...) A lot of the traits that you list for policy are slowly being phased into LD.

Also: that tends to happen when you have parent judges, unless you just had a really stupid technical judge. There is an argument to be made by the negative if the affirmative case was wildly specific/unpredictable, but if you just say "no link" and the other guy responds with essentially "no you," then...

Whatcha gonna do, little buckaroo? | i be pimpin' madoka fics