Bell,+Jason

Affiliation: Ladue High School Experience: 4 years high school policy

Although the following are my personal beliefs/preferences regarding policy, I will listen to and objectively evaluate any argument presented in the round. Still, I definitely have different thresholds on different argument types/specific arguments. For example, it's going to take a lot more to get me to buy dehum good than nuke war bad, though cold drops are cold concessions (to reiterate the much maligned cliche). I'll almost always vote for the team with the most offense on the flow.

Absent alternative instruction, I will usually default to a policy maker paradigm.

Topicality: I will default to competing interpretations. I have a low threshold for voting neg on T, I don't believe there needs to be in-round abuse/the neg need not prove any real abuse.

Disadvantages: I'm fine with generic disadvantages, as long as they're unique. Stupid/bad impact scenarios aren't going to get you very far with me (read: econ collapse=nuke war isn't going to be a game winner). Huge fan of ptx disads, especially cool/hyper specific ones.

Counterplans: I tend to give the neg a lot of room on counterplan theory. I don't think that counterplan theory is usually a voter. I don't like noncompetitive counterplans.

Kritiks: I dislike generic ks. The authors in which I'm best versed are D+G, Nietzsche, and Heidegger. I'm also very familiar with postcolonial theory and criticisms of epistemology. I like performance Ks.

Theory: I rarely find theory a compelling voter as much as a reason to disregard a particular argument. Theory was not my strong point in high school. The one area I feel strongly about is negation theory/multiple worlds/hypotesting--hate it.

I can handle speed at about a 7/10.

I will only read cards after the round if specifically asked to during the debate.

Things you should do/things I will reward you for in speaks: -Impact Analysis/Calculus -Overviews -Actually //read// the cards you read. -Run interesting arguments. -Humor -Cross-x skills -Teamwork -STRATEGY

Things you shouldn't do: -Act rudely/disrespectfully towards the other team -Clip cards -Open cross-x