CARD Winter 2023 Team Resources
This page provides information and links to information useful for participating in Collegiate Advocacy Research and Debate in Winter and Spring 2023.
Tournament schedule – Winter & Spring 2023
- January 28-29: University of Minnesota (hybrid)
- February 24-26: Western Washington University (in-person)
- March 10-12: Weber State University (in-person)
- April 21-23: PNW Conference of Scholars, University of Oregon (in-person)
Article library and collection
Argument collection (prepared arguments to use on negative)
Abolition criticism
A “criticism” or “kritik” or “the K” is an argument that indicts the paradigm and philosophical assumptions of the affirmative: how they framed the problem, the assumptions they left unexplored, or maybe philosophical objections to the approach taken by the affirmative to solving problems they have identified.
An analogy might help to clarify. Imagine an affirmative that says the government should more rigorously enforce anti-trust law to promote competition within our capitalist system. A negative response could be that there is sufficient competition now or that the particular steps taken to promote competition will in fact weaken the economy. A critique argument by the negative might say that capitalism as a system is unfit for this century and that to think tinkering with anti-trust laws will make it fit is a dangerous delusion, one that will delay recognition of the need for real change.
A criticism for the criminal justice topic is “abolition” – or that we need a new paradigm to think about society and “crime” in society. We don’t need to improve policing at the margins or reform plea bargaining, etc., instead we need a root and branch change in our thinking and the footprint of law enforcement.
Jackie Massey from Oklahoma produced an abolition criticism document that combines evidence from different sources in the article packet.
Jackie also prepared a short video presentation explaining the argument.
Passcode: &$%4mr5M
CARD Demonstration debate
Here is a showcase CARD debate from 2021 that offers a demystifying glimpse of what happens in a debate round.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjohJtX2R6E
Summer preparation lectures (Justin Stanley)
Justin Stanley at JCCC made available a set of textual resources and links to videos on various aspects of debate and criminal justice reform topic in particular. You might find valuable insights among these materials (I have not individually inspected all of them and may not agree with all his takes because that is how debate and argument works!)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D-D3W-_0xJc48UfKUSXnvyYa87Q3n5Igbh7Sre0Hggg/edit#heading=h.gxiugt9636hg