Zhang,+Derek

Hi! I'm Derek, and I debated for four years at Mountain View High School, qualifying to TOC twice and graduating in 2017.

I believe that debate is a game, so I will vote off pretty much anything as long as you properly justify it in round--theory, Ks, tricks, frameworks, etc. are all fair game, and I have experience debating against and running pretty much every type of argument in debate.

I default epistemic confidence, which means that, unless told to do otherwise, I adjudicate debates by resolving the top-level of the flow before moving on to the next layer.

I default to weighing based on strength of link and won't evaluate statements that are literal assertions (ex -- 1NC: "T comes before theory!" 2NR: "Haha you conceded T comes before theory!").

I love it when people actually respond to arguments! I understand that uplayering can be very strategic, however, so I won't punish you for being smart and choosing the path of least resistance.

Amaze me with eloquent overviews, effective strategic decisions, and technical line-by-line analysis, and you will get very high speaks.

Personal views about debate (won't affect how I evaluate rounds at all, but just thought you might be interested; these aren't really my defaults or whatever): - truth testing = true - theory comes before the K - most plans are BS (Nebel T is true) - disclosure theory is fascist - analytic philosophy is educational/not racist - theory is a good norm that promotes critical thinking and opens up strategic possibilities - debate itself is good/educational - disclosure is fascist - stop stealing policy backfiles!!! esp for Ks, they're not even good!! <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">- i really enjoyed running a prioris/tricks in high school <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">- not a fan of mpx-justified frameworks like "stopping corruption" bc "all fwks say corruption is bad" <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">- debate is headed in a bad direction because most people don't read frameworks and stuff any more besides util/structural violence