The Problem with Hostility in Debate

Throughout my years of debate experience, I have come to dislike one aspect of the competitive space: the cutthroat atmosphere. I believe that this environment of constant competition leads to a sense of malice, which often can deter debaters from wanting to engage in those spaces, especially those with less experience.

From the perspective of both a competitor and judge, the lack of respect in many spaces has deeply alarmed me. While many of my local tournaments where I knew all of my competitors didn’t hold much of a hostile environment because of our friendly basis, any time I went to an out-of-state tournament, I had never felt more uncomfortable engaging with other debaters. Many of them would find ways to mock me or my arguments, both in the round and out of round, and some of my male competitors would even imply their superiority on a gendered basis by saying that I was an alright debater “for a girl”. Compared to the slightly awkward, but still welcomed, small talk before debating back home, I often faced glares and tensions so high I could cut it with a knife. Sometimes my opponents would even seem extremely reluctant to say “good round” regardless of whether they had lost or won, instead quickly packing up and leaving the room.

Yet, I don't believe it’s every individual’s fault for engaging in this behavior. The atmosphere of debate has always been inherently competitive, given that debate is a competition. Especially when competing on a larger scale, it’s easy to feel disconnected from the person beyond the debater. After all, they're someone that you want to win against in a round. They can appear to merely be a statistic that will appear on your Tabroom record, a possible obstacle to prevent you from breaking. Still, I don’t believe this easy-to-fall-into idea should imply a lack of respect for the humanity of your opponents.

This trap of viewing your competitors more as mere obstacles as compared to actual individuals is something that I also have fallen victim to. As I improved over the years and became a more formidable opponent, I sometimes found myself forgetting that at the end of the day, my competitors are just hopeful debaters who also want to do their best and improve. I found myself viewing them merely through their arguments, and would sometimes even look down on them if I thought their arguments weren’t of the best quality.

As I matured, becoming a judge and a college-level debater, my perspective massively shifted. I started to feel ashamed of some of my past thoughts and actions in high school, viewing my opponents the way I did. Going into a completely new debate format in my secondary education reminded me of that same feeling of being completely lost that I had when I first started debate. I had to learn an entirely new debating format, one that I am still not completely accustomed to, and switch from a debate event where I competed alone to one where I had to coordinate with a partner. I went to tournaments where sometimes I was just flatly called idiotic by my opponents when I didn’t understand a motion, which made me want to quit despite my passion for forensics.

Moreover, when I started judging, watching a debater talk down to their opponent felt terrible. Especially during crossfire, the environment would sometimes get so intense with debaters fighting back and forth that I would have to interrupt them to ask them to remain respectful of one another. I decided to volunteer to judge debate rounds to help debaters improve their argument skills and speaking style, but my biggest piece of advice for them ended up being to be kinder to one another.

As a judge, the most important thing you want to see in a round are clashes of well-made arguments countering one another with good weighing mechanisms, impact calculation, etc. Yet, many debate rounds can turn into people bullying their opponents into feeling less than them. It doesn’t matter if you’re going against someone competing in their very first varsity tournament, that doesn’t give you the right to treat them less than you. Even if you hear an argument you think doesn’t hold weight, that doesn’t mean you suddenly have the right to treat them disrespectfully.

As I mentioned, I do not believe that this hostility is the fault of the debater. I think it comes from the way that debate is structured, being an inherently competitive event, as well as creating a sense of disconnection between students. Regardless, I still believe that we, as a community, are responsible for avoiding this hostile environment. If we continue to do nothing, it will only continue to push newer debaters away and the “death of rural debate” that we are seeing, given that those from backgrounds where they may not have as many resources to practice are most likely to be pushed away from this type of competitive space. I want to add that I am not advocating that you can never have any amount of aggressiveness in your debate style and should be super passive when interacting with your opponents. The right amount of aggressiveness can benefit you while debating and allow you to assert yourself as a strong competitor. This Lincoln Douglas final at nationals from 2019 is a great example of both competitors being assertive of one’s arguments, but also not being rude to each other. 

However, I think there are a couple of ways that we can look towards addressing the issue of hostility:

First, be kinder to your opponents. You have no idea what your competitor might be going through, how nervous they might be, or what type of support they have. We debate because we enjoy it, simple as that. When we are a community that has so much in common, there is no need to treat opponents as mere Tabroom entries. Even if it is awkward, try to make small talk with your opponents. 

Second, embrace the differences that make the debate community vibrant. Even if you think your opponent’s extinction impact is ridiculous and would never actually happen, debate against it like a real argument. Even if your debate style varies from someone else’s, don’t treat them as if their difference means inferiority.

With how intimidating debate can be to start, especially if you’re coming from a background without much experience or resources, the last thing we need in the debate community is more aggression or hostility.