At High School Debates, Debate Is Not Allowed | Peter Boghossian & James Fishback

For years, James Fishback has been dedicated to formal debate as a competitor and coach. In 2019, James launched “Incubate Debate,” a nonprofit organization bringing no-cost, free-speech debate tournaments, workshops, and camps to students across Florida. The organization seeks to overcome economic hardship and increasing censorship in national debate events. In May, James wrote an article, “At High School Debates, Debate Is No Longer Allowed,” for The Free Press. He exposed the punishment debaters receive for “what they say and how they say it,” and the ideological constraints judges enact in tournaments. In June, James wrote a second article for The Free Press about tournament punishments based on debaters’ comments on social media—completely unrelated to their debate performance. In lockstep with the rest of academia, ideas on the debate stage are being censored on the basis of “safety” and ideological conformity. Watch this episode on YouTube.

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We stand transparent about our motivations: we are champions of liberal values and Enlightenment Rationalism. Reason & liberty are paramount-whether threatened by tyranny in places like China or elsewhere-because they are essential to human dignity and prosperity. The Enlightenment, with it's emphasis on error-correction, is the philosophical project that has cultivated the wealth & freedom of the modern world. The West has been a custodian of this tradition of criticism, producing societies full rapid, stable, and genuine progress. The clearer people become on this connection, the more they'll recognize that these principles are what enable our civilization to be freer, safer, and more prosperous. This is the set of ideas we are committed to spreading.~ Reid Nicewonder