[caligatrux]

It's pure liberal elitist academia washing out a traditional and actually useful skill.

True debate is constructing a sound, reasonable and logical argument from the facts and circumstances, and then making a convincing presentation to sway others with reason and persuasion.

That is everything the left is not. So they turned it into a "poetry slam" contest, where they judge the effort on its artistic value rather than reasonableness or persuasiveness.

Its like if you took a football game and replaced the referees with judges from an ice skating competition who would assign points for style, composition and artistic impression rather than actually making touchdowns.

[driftless2]

I remember when I was in high school back in the sixties watching a mock debate between some of the people on the school debate team. The arguments were logical and presented so that the audience (we students) could follow and understand. I never attended any debates when I was in college.

I've read the "logic" behind the modern system as to present as many facts as possible to support their "argument" such as it is. But I would love to see these modern debaters and all the people involved in the modern debate system give a sample to average Americans to view on tv. I doubt they'd find many backers for their system. While I'm sure the majority of the students involved in the modern debate system are bright kids, I can't see how learning this weird speed-talking style will help them in the future. Imagine some political candidate trying to talk that way in front of an audience.

[driftless2]

And you’re right....the black “debaters” style was more of a performance rather than an academic exercise. They made a farce out of the whole thing. Both black teams. I watched parts of their debate, and was further astonished when the audience applauded them when they finished. I wonder if they were applauding a performance or a debate, or were they just happy they finished with their gobbledygook?