Weil,+Stephen

A few important general points before I talk about specific arguments:

1. One of, if not the, most important part of resolving the debate for me is impact calculus. Impact calculus is more than just “DA outweighs the case” at the top of the 2NC and 2NR. You can and should “impact” any and every important argument you go for in terms of how it wins you the debate/interacts with their arguments. This means “our link turn outweighs their link—a) blah blah b) blah blah” or “our uniqueness takeout is more important than the direction of the link” etc. If you compare evidence, weigh the importance of arguments and explain your evidence instead of simply extending it by author and cite, then there are fewer issues that are left totally in my hands when I am resolving the debate. These are the sorts of things that decide close debates and improve your speaker points. Impact calculus is essentially telling me how to evaluate the debate, and absent some comparison about the relative importance of competing arguments, some “intervention” is inevitable if I have to resolve the quality of uniqueness evidence or whatever is in question.

As a corollary, I have found that these "framing arguments," while not substituting for effective line-by-line debating, are often more important to how I ultimately evaluate the debate. This has a few implications. First, an argument is not "dropped" just because there is no ink next to it - if that argument has been answered conceptually elsewhere, I will reward the other teams' explanation of their arguments/thesis rather than the technical skill of isolating which of your arguments they did not directly refute. Second, if an argument is "dropped," you only receive the weight of what that argument actually said. Two examples. If you say "conditionality is bad, it destroys 2ac strategy, overstretches the aff, thats a voting issue for fairness and education," I probably have "condo bad = vi" on my flow. If the other team fails to respond, the argument they have dropped does not amount to a complete argument, and I will be hesitant to vote on it unless the 1AR extrapolates further on these arguments, which in my mind would justify 2NR responses to the warrants for these claims (notably, the warrant for why conditionality should be a voting issue). "Cheap shot" theory arguments will almost never be a reason to reject the team, even if the other team forgot to answer your unwarranted assertion that severance perms should be a VI. The second example - if the negative reads an Indo/Pak war impact, and the aff reads a card tagged "zero chance of indo/pak war, and the 2NR extends the Indo/Pak impact without explicit reference to the affirmative's piece of evidence, they have not "conceded a zero chance of indo/pak war," although unless the 2NR impact calculus has responded (implicitly) to the warrant in this piece of evidence, they may be in trouble. That being said, if I call for your card and all it actually says is "India and Pakistan have a telephone to call in crises," then that is the only argument you get credit for, and it is unlikely to be helpful.

2. I will probably be able to figure out what you are saying. But, if I am straining to do so, I am both getting less down on my flow and having less time to actually process your argument and understand it. If I don’t understand an argument, I will be less able/willing to vote on it, so if something is especially important, slow down and emphasize. Monotone speeches are a recipe for lower points.

Now, some specifics. Keep in mind that these are my leanings and not absolute criteria for evaluating a debate.

Topicality:

A good topicality violation is one that is well and specifically impacted. When I say that a topicality violation should be well impacted, this means that the neg wins that the aff’s interpretation excludes some set of arguments which is essential, and not just convenient, for negative competitiveness or that they exclude a debate about some subject in the literature which is important to the topic. What is often missing in topicality debates is a well-developed debate about the importance of different “standards” relative to each other, i.e. does “the ground the neg loses” hurt them more than the limitation your interpretation puts on the aff.

What is the purpose of topicality? Is it supposed to determine which of two interpretations is better for debate in theory, or is it supposed to ensure that the negative and affirmative are on equal enough footing to have a debate? For me, this is the central question regarding whether I should defer to “reasonability” or “competing interpretations” and I could be persuaded either way.

OSPEC/Subsets/Etc – Ugh. ASPEC – Maybe, but still an uphill battle. Ask in cross-x or it’s close to a non-starter for me.

The Kritik:

As a debater, I am flexible going for either kritiks or policy arguments, and hence you should feel free to run either in front of me. I have probably not read your specific K author (with a few limited exceptions), although I am certainly not clueless when it comes to the general K/philosophical literature that gets read in debates. Some specific observations:

1. To me, the alternative and framework crucial to any kritik debate. The affirmative should attack the alternative, not just in terms of its value, but also in terms of its efficacy. The negative’s alternative should not just be good, but also achievable. However, this debate centers on what it means for me to vote affirmative/negative (the framework). Am I voting for a world in which the alternative exists, or am I voting negative as an intellectual in the academy/whatever? I can be persuaded to vote negative on a “utopian” alternative if the negative frames the ballot in this way and the affirmative does not attack such a framing from either a theoretical or substantive perspective. These issues can also shape the way I view the permutation, impact calculus, etc - so it will behoove you to spend a reasonable amount of time (on both sides) discussing how I should evaluate the debate.

2. Most kritik debates devolve into a variety of small arguments varying from “cede the political” to “no value to life” to “turns the case.” Please (both teams) impact these arguments in relation to one another, and tell me why your arguments are a reason to ignore theirs/vote for you. What happens if the aff wins extinction inevitable now but the neg wins value to life? What happens if the neg wins a turns the case argument, but there is zero alternative solvency to provide uniqueness? This relates again to the "framing questions" that I discussed at the beginning - isolate the important ones, and discuss them in the 2NR/2AR, and you will almost certainly be far more satisfied with my decision.

Finally, kritiks on the affirmative. Please please please do not be vague in cross-x. My gut leaning is that critical advantages are OK, but that the affirmative should probably defend a topical plan. If people ask you specific questions about your “framework” or the implementation of your affirmative, answer them clearly. You should make it clear what arguments you think are “responsive” within your framework, and how different arguments should be evaluated relative to your aff. Most of the time, the answer to these questions will seem unfair. If you are negative, you should point this out and provide a counter-interpretation of how I should evaluate the debate. Chances are, I will be naturally inclined towards the negative's interpretation, but this doesn't mean the neg gets a free pass through these debates. I still expect the negative to defend, substantively and/or theoretically, why their version of policy-oriented debate and predictability are valuable. Impact calculus might be even more important here than in other contexts - if the aff interpretation is unpredictable for the negative to research, but the negative's interpretation dehumanizes minorities who try and participate, who wins? Not an easy question.

Counterplans / Theory:

1. The threshold for making any theory argument a voting issue is high. You cannot just say “voting issue—fairness and education” and expect to win, even if the other team drops it. This is especially true for “cheap shots.” My default is always to reject the argument and not the team, unless you develop a compelling argument for why I must reject the team.

2. Conditionality is probably fine, although especially with regard to 2+ CPs/Ks, I can be convinced that this practice is destructive. This would certainly not be an easy debate for the affirmative, but given how terrible most negative teams are at truly defending conditionality, a team that had thought the issue through very well could be in good shape.

3. Consult / Conditioning / Etc – I almost always think that these are unfair, but the negative is in a better place if they have a good solvency advocate to make their CP seem less contrived. A link to your net benefit is not a solvency advocate for doing the CP.

4. Other - my opinions are less clear about other issues, and I could be persuaded both ways, although I am probably more aff-leaning in general on these issues than most. PICs are almost certainly fine, especially if they are both textually and functionally competitive (wanky PICs that compete off "normal means" or Word PICs are both pushing it). Agent CPs are almost certainly fine if the aff specified their agent, and pretty questionable otherwise. International fiat is usually OK, although when fiating an agent of the resolution, the negative is bound to get into more trouble.

Overall – try to impact your theory arguments in terms of how it changes the quality and competitiveness of debate. Instead of using catch-phrases like “time skew,” “neg flex,” “breadth of education,” you should explain what sort of CPs their theory argument justifies and what it would be like to be aff in a world where those were OK. If they PIC out of a word in your plan and say its ok because “you get to chose the words in your plan,” you should respond by explaining that with this sort of standard, every time someone researches a new aff, they have to cut answers to “x” word PICs, where “x” is the number of words in your plan. This punishes affs for doing research, and creates a ridiculous burden for the 2A. That is more compelling to me than “skews aff ground” or something.

Keep in mind - these are my leanings, but they are by no means absolute decision rules. Most importantly - have fun, debate the arguments that you feel comfortable with, and I will reward you if you can explain/argue them well.