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So the debate is basically a gentrified 'yo-mama'/rap-battle? Don't get me wrong: I love a good rap battle and the improv prowess of some rappers is simply asto

So the debate is basically a gentrified 'yo-mama'/rap-battle? Don't get me wrong: I love a good rap battle and the improv prowess of some rappers is simply astounding. But at the end of the day the delivery matters more than the content. I didn't know anything about debate teams, but it seems most similar to football than to chess?

nnfy 9y ago
I dont know if it is acceptable to post YouTube links on HN, but here is a recording of recent national champions.[1] That it is even called debate is tragic. 1.https://youtube.com/watch?v=fmO-ziHU_D8 https://youtube.com/watch?v=fmO-ziHU_D8
- kelvin0 9y ago
  Using the 'N' word in a debate competition? besides that it has more the allure of a verbal seizure ... as you said tragic.
- scrumper 9y ago
  That’s not really just a recording of the champions is it? It’s a selective edit of bits of the debate with a news interview with the winners. it’s intentionally jarring. Do you have a link to the actual recording? The owner of the clip you linked to removed his link to the actual debate recording after the poster of the original recording asked that this be taken down.
  - nnfy 9y ago
    There is nothing selectively jarring about 20+ seconds of grown women hyperventilating and screaming "nigga" during a supposed national scholastic event.
    - scrumper 9y ago
      There absolutely is when those 20+ seconds are jump cut in the middle of a calm interview. The debate itself was far more than 20 seconds. It is entirely selective. I clicked on the video because I was interested in an example of this high velocity, arcane, rule-optimized debate game that we're all talking about on this story. What I got instead was a video cutting the most shocking and ineffective parts of their performance in with them discussing their win on TV, done for effect. Come off it. I could record your next presentation and edit out all but the parts where you said "umm" and you'd look like a moron. Even more so if I then creatively cut that in with video of you explaining to your boss how you'd done a great job in the meeting. (I have no idea what you do; I am sure you can understand the analogy).
      - nnfy 9y ago
        I don't know how to make this any clearer, as you seem to have a vested interest in maintaining that the clips indicate nothing untoward about the competition. A clip of ANY duration showing those behaviors bid competition is unnaceptable. > Come off it. I could record your next presentation and edit out all but the parts where you said "umm" and you'd look like a moron. Even more so if I then creatively cut that in with video of you explaining to your boss how you'd done a great job in the meeting. (I have no idea what you do; I am sure you can understand the analogy). Or, you could generate a single clip where I say "nigga" during a meeting and scream non-sequiturs as quickly as I could in order to get a point across, and I would be rightly fired for behaving like an animal. Regardless of whether the clip is 5 or 20 seconds long The fact that something is selectively edited does not alone imply that it is biased or incorrect. The clips were more than enough to highlight the state to which modern debate has devolved. There are other, unedited examples of this inane style of "debate". My point is that this style of debate activity itself is not in any way conducive to the exchange of ideas or advancement of understanding; the fact that they were given a trophy after spending ANY time debating in such a manner is an extremely poor reflection on the state of "debate" in our schools.
        kelvin0 9y ago
        I completely agree, I don't even understand how this is not clear to others. It looks like taking a dump in the proverbial punch bowl (whatever the rest of the debate was).
sjg007 9y ago
This would be a great movie.

nnfy 9y ago

I dont know if it is acceptable to post YouTube links on HN, but here is a recording of recent national champions.[1] That it is even called debate is tragic. 1.https://youtube.com/watch?v=fmO-ziHU_D8 https://youtube.com/watch?v=fmO-ziHU_D8

kelvin0 9y ago
Using the 'N' word in a debate competition? besides that it has more the allure of a verbal seizure ... as you said tragic.
scrumper 9y ago
That’s not really just a recording of the champions is it? It’s a selective edit of bits of the debate with a news interview with the winners. it’s intentionally jarring. Do you have a link to the actual recording? The owner of the clip you linked to removed his link to the actual debate recording after the poster of the original recording asked that this be taken down.
- nnfy 9y ago
  There is nothing selectively jarring about 20+ seconds of grown women hyperventilating and screaming "nigga" during a supposed national scholastic event.
  - scrumper 9y ago
    There absolutely is when those 20+ seconds are jump cut in the middle of a calm interview. The debate itself was far more than 20 seconds. It is entirely selective. I clicked on the video because I was interested in an example of this high velocity, arcane, rule-optimized debate game that we're all talking about on this story. What I got instead was a video cutting the most shocking and ineffective parts of their performance in with them discussing their win on TV, done for effect. Come off it. I could record your next presentation and edit out all but the parts where you said "umm" and you'd look like a moron. Even more so if I then creatively cut that in with video of you explaining to your boss how you'd done a great job in the meeting. (I have no idea what you do; I am sure you can understand the analogy).
    - nnfy 9y ago
      I don't know how to make this any clearer, as you seem to have a vested interest in maintaining that the clips indicate nothing untoward about the competition. A clip of ANY duration showing those behaviors bid competition is unnaceptable. > Come off it. I could record your next presentation and edit out all but the parts where you said "umm" and you'd look like a moron. Even more so if I then creatively cut that in with video of you explaining to your boss how you'd done a great job in the meeting. (I have no idea what you do; I am sure you can understand the analogy). Or, you could generate a single clip where I say "nigga" during a meeting and scream non-sequiturs as quickly as I could in order to get a point across, and I would be rightly fired for behaving like an animal. Regardless of whether the clip is 5 or 20 seconds long The fact that something is selectively edited does not alone imply that it is biased or incorrect. The clips were more than enough to highlight the state to which modern debate has devolved. There are other, unedited examples of this inane style of "debate". My point is that this style of debate activity itself is not in any way conducive to the exchange of ideas or advancement of understanding; the fact that they were given a trophy after spending ANY time debating in such a manner is an extremely poor reflection on the state of "debate" in our schools.
      - kelvin0 9y ago
        I completely agree, I don't even understand how this is not clear to others. It looks like taking a dump in the proverbial punch bowl (whatever the rest of the debate was).

sjg007 9y ago

This would be a great movie.