Personal politics and debate judging

[MillCreek]

https://www.thefp.com/p/judges-ruin-high-school-debate-tournaments

From the article:

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.

Well, this sucks.  I lettered in debate in high school, and it was great, great training for me to think logically, see different sides of an issue, think on my feet and present persuasive arguments.  My experience in debate was very helpful to me in my legal and risk management work.  I did some high school debate judging when I was with the law firm and I enjoyed it.  For me, the judging was all about how you organized your thoughts and presented a clear and compelling argument. I was unaware of the current state of the art.

[Perd Hapley]

So you can only win the debate by losing? How very New Testament.

[WLJ]

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.

The firing squads will continue until everyone has the same correct opinion

[Ben]

Sad.  I recall that when I had classes with required debates in High School, the teachers encouraged the "unpopular" viewpoint and seemed to encourage and respect the students who took a side that the student personally disagreed with.

[Pb]

I thought debaters were assigned positions to defend... and had to be ready to argue any side. 

I guess that wouldn't make a difference to a judge like that though.

[Perd Hapley]

I thought debaters were assigned positions to defend... and had to be ready to argue any side. 

I guess that wouldn't make a difference to a judge like that though.

The difference between a school and a madrasah.

[griz]

So their official position is the judges are to be impartial and not rule on personal bias, yet they allow judges to openly post statements about their biases?  Sounds like somebody's got some 'splaing to do.

[K Frame]

Meh. My preferred form of debate is a hard straight jab to the face.

[HankB]

I was never in an actual debate club or class, but in college they said one of the best ways to get an "A" from some philosophy professors was to disagree with them. In a civil manner, of course. A few of them actually seemed to relish civilized discourse.

From reading the link in the original post, if I were a debater and had one of those ADMITTEDLY biased judges . . . I would likely use what little time I would have (before they cut my mike) to call out  the biased judge, denounce the process as a fraud and a sham, and walk off. And thinking back to my high school and college classmates, many - perhaps most - of them would do the same.

Don't play their games.

(Good advice for today's female high school and college athletes who are tossed into competition with female impersonators.)