I c-c-can’t watch it, I’m embarrassed on their behalf

UH

I watched that, and I can't tell you what they were debating. That's not the sign of a good debate.

That’s because they should be mopping the kitchen floor at a Popeyes somewhere.

Presidential war powers was the topic

All I got out of it was "clack clack.

That because uh your a uh racist uh

Funny video, but if any of you guys are genuinely curious about why this style of debate wins tournaments, you might be interested in this episode of Radiolab.

For better or worse, the fast-talking kritik is an effective strategy employed by debaters of all races, and really boils down to the fact that the competitive debate has become more akin to to an organized sport, rather than what outsiders associate with the word.

Yeah, sounds lame.

It’s extremely lame, yeah. But with the proper context this video just becomes an example of college dorks effectively playing an autistic little game.

interesting, i'll listen. i just assumed debate was...well, a debate. this blows my mind.

Yeah, as someone with some familiarity with the weird world of college debate, I really can’t fault the girls in this video for anything. As cringey as it is to watch, what you’re not seeing is all the factors and variables behind the scenes that led them to conclude that this was the most effective strategy to score a win this specific debate.

It’s also worth mentioning that whether a team takes a negative or affirmative position is decided randomly decided right before the match, so these girls had to research and prepare strategies and material for both possible positions. Kritiks are most often used for negative positions, which I assume they’re taking, so it’s very likely that their strategy had they drawn the affirmative would have sounded more lucid and conventional to normal people. Ultimately the biggest influencer of their approach was probably what they understood about the judges and their specific methodologies for scoring.

What's the strategy though? To a completely ignorant person like myself I see someone yelling quickly, breathing abnormal, and using language not typically looked at as making an intellectual point. How would that defer from another strategy that they could have taken?

Yeah you’re not totally wrong. A lot of modern debate comes down to which team is the most adept at overwhelming their opponent with mountains of rapidly delivered nonsense. It’s really weird shit, and there is a weird sort of skill involved, but it’s difficult to convey without getting really technical.

College debate is definitely arbitrary and not a particularly relevant skill—in the same way that card or board games are—but it does make more sense if viewed as a type of word game rather than a debate about ideas.

In the simplest terms I can think of, a lot of this comes down to the way scoring works— a team is not penalized for making a bad or nonsensical argument, unless the other team calls them out for it and explains why. This has led to the current situation where bombarding someone with non-sequiturs and highly subjective or emotional arguments—or questioning the very legitimacy of the topic or debate as a concept—has become a viable strategy if you believe your opponents will not be able to address each and every distinct fallacy you make within their response time.

That actually makes perfect sense (not really, but it does in this context) because that exactly describes what I saw in that video. I assume then that the other person on the computer is trying to keep track of the arguments they've used and the arguments their opponents have used.

What a complete clusterfuck. I wasn't able to listen to the podcast about it (blocked at work, I'll listen at home), but my guess is that the article about kritik is how this style took over debates? I browsed it and it just made me angry haha

Yeah, the rules of debate weren’t set up with this result in mind, but eventually people started exploiting them to win. And over time this basically just became what debate was. I feel like I kinda see this from both sides; like obviously this shit is not what we mean or value about actual debate and it serves no purpose other than being weird to watch. But at the same time, whatever the fuck it is, it’s a very unique sport that emerged for interesting reasons.

As is obvious from the video, there is a huge SJW component to it today, but that leads to hilarious situations where the team tasked with, say, opposing affirmative action or justifying a border wall or something are delivering poetry slams or using academic feminist frameworks to argue for those positions. It’s really weird shit and ultimately I’m glad it exists.

I'd accept this - if all the white teams said 'nigger', too.

It probably wouldn’t be the first time. It’s really hard to explain in non-autistic terms, but I can actually imagine a scenario where a white team would employ that as a provocative hail mary play, and the fact that I’m picturing it tells me it’s probably happened.

College debate is really fuckin’ weird man. It’s just the weirdest thing.

All people are the same, child.

I only understood "queer nigga" and I couldn't agree more

That is what you call black girl magic

mmmhmmm

Conservatives really need to stop fighting against these creatures' rights to have the highest abortion rates in the United States.

The unearned confidence of fat black women is ridiculous.

Yeah, but this is like the negro leagues in that circuit. Easy to make it to the top.

No, they were going up against white people who were practicing a more traditional, logic-based argument style.

lies, they were debating a black team

Huh. That's not how I remember it happening

That episode is not about the debate in the video ya rube

I couldn't make it all the way to the end. Do they start throwing shit or was I reading the tone of this wrong?

No just ends in a shoot out

It's weird how the media is fashionated with "ghetto" culture and mindset. Malcom X didn't debate this way, neither did MLK. They put the spotlight on this dumb fucks instead of someone reasonable and well read

Thanks for the take, Vos.

The most well spoken black guy is Thomas Sowell, but he's not a liberal so they consider him an Uncle Tom.

So so so so you’re saying that nigga FDR gave the presidency too much power on a nigga?

Beat poetry rap battle

shut up nigger!

CEDA makes an announcement regarding this debate.

(watch it until the end)

CEDA Debate 2013 Review

(Watch until the end)

Funny video, but if any of you guys are genuinely curious about why this style of debate wins tournaments, you might be interested in this episode of Radiolab. For better or worse, the fast-talking kritik is an effective strategy employed by debaters of all races, and really boils down to the fact that the competitive debate has become more akin to to an organized sport, rather than what outsiders associate with the word.

The comments on this video are pretty solid.

"2060 presidential debate"