Tournament: UGA | Round: 5 | Opponent: Georgetown Day | Judge: Rob Eback
We agree with the aff that we should realize the imminent power of our own actions, and that there is always the possibility for resistance and change. We shouldn’t be forced to clash with this thesis. Agreement shouldn’t count against us; we aren’t “dropping” the case, we’re refusing to answer it.
First, don’t force us to play devil’s advocate. The 1AC did not invite a reasonable response. We won’t argue for the sake of argument.
Durkee 8 — Art Durkee, a musician, artist, and writer who has won awards for music composition, visual art, and creative writing, 2008 (“Against Argument Culture,” Dragoncave—a blog, September 9th, Available Online at http://artdurkee.blogspot.com/2008/09/against-argument-culture.html, Accessed 02-20-2014)
I am not saying that one should not stand up for a good cause when one …
highly invested in it, as Tannen points out.
Second, forcing us to clash with the 1AC is destructive. Not every issue has two sides worth expressing. Demanding that we present the “other side” leads to moral equivalence and the spread of misinformation, ruining debate.
Tannen 13 — Deborah Tannen, University Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Georgetown University, Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of California-Berkeley, 2013 (“The Argument Culture: Agonism and the Common Good,” Dædalus—the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Volume 142, Issue 2, Spring, Available Online at http://www.amacad.org/multimedia/pdfs/publications/daedalus/spring2013/13_spring_daedalus_Tannen.pdf, Accessed 02-17-2014, p. 182)
The second form of agonism that characterizes the press is the …
people go on a “news fast” to preserve their equilibrium and mental health.